OC Family News

Matt Wakefield
Family Liaison

April 2013

April is here, spring has arrived, but outside it sure looks and feels like January. Family buses seem to keep rolling along as our bus count has been two buses plus every Sunday. There is plenty of snow on the ground and mountains still have great conditions, especially those that have benefitted from the recent storms. With luck we will have a great month ahead of us for spring skiing. A quick recap of March is needed as the Winter Carnival (thanks Kathy Howard) at Magic Mtn. along with the St. Patrick’s Day Mt. Snow bus trip were both huge successes with 3 buses running for these events. April now brings us to Club election time, so know who the candidates are and make your voting selection count! This club functions with your support and the direction of club officers. Nominations for officers are held March 28th & April 4th with elections being held April 18th.

Matt Wakefield
OC Family Liaison
mattw63@verizon.net
OC Family Corner

March 2013

WOW another year where Punxsutawney Phil claimed we will have an early spring. Snow has come since his prediction and things are still looking good on the slopes. January & February the club has had record bus/attendee counts and family buses have been running regularly as we have had two buses pretty much every week. Hopefully this trend will continue and family buses will be available all during March if we can continue to book two buses or more! In March our big event is the OC Winter Carnival which will be held this year on Saturday, March 9th at Magic Mtn. OC family nights at Maple Ski Ridge, $10 tickets will still be available for Wednesday from 5 PM to close as long as they are open. Hope to see you all out on the slopes

Matt Wakefield
Family Liaison
mattw63 at verizon.net

February 2013

We are in the heart of winter now and it sure looks a lot different than it did last year! Family events this season have been quite successful. The Smugglers Notch trip continues to grow this year with 50 people attending, taking 8 condos in the Highlands area. Racing has started with the January 26th West Mountain - ASC Sponsored Race. Our Maple Ski Ridge offer is on Wednesday & Thursday nights (4 PM to close - $10.00), plus two remaining Fridays during the season, Feb. 8th & Mar. 1st. Our weekday & Sunday Family buses are going great; we are also getting some advance notice that a second bus will be added, so you can plan your Sunday Family ski day. Our 2013 race schedule has been posted and these days are family dates that will be Saturday ski days - February 2nd at Pico (Council-sponsored race) and February 9th at Magic (OC sponsored race); at this point these will be drive-ups. If you have any ideas and suggestions as to how to make the balance of this 2013 ski season even better than it has been so far, PLEASE CONTACT ME and I will work to put these options into action. Also start planning for the Saturday March 9th OC Winter Carnival at Magic Mountain!

Matt Wakefield
OC Ski Club Family Liaison

January 2013

Happy New Year OC family, I hope you got those new skis for Christmas that you asked Santa for and were able to use them over the holiday break. As for family events we are getting ready for our Smugglers Notch trip on Jan. 18th-21st, a great deal which we will have 40+ OC family members taking advantage of. I will be working again this year with Jeff Kenton trying to get the ski lesson program for family members up and going once again this year. Additionally Paula Moir and the race program will have a full schedule of dates to offer family members. Please stay up to date with all the family events by having your name on my email list as well as regularly checking on family events posted on the OC web site. See you on the slopes or race course!

Matt Wakefield
Family Liaison
518-469-1978
Email: mattw63 at verizon dot net

December 2012

Winter is officially here with the coming of December, all of the talking will be over and you’ll be on the slopes with help from Mother Nature and a little bit of luck. December family ski days currently scheduled are Sunday 16th Okemo, Sunday 23rd Whiteface, & Friday 28th Gore. Additionally (as always), every Sunday that the club runs two buses to a mountain there is the option for one to be a family bus. Our annual OC Family Trip to Smugglers Notch has many openings and I encourage all OC members to consider this trip. This is not just a family trip but an OC trip with great value, great accommodations, and great skiing. This year the trip has an additional benefit that it is during the Martin Luther King holiday weekend without a premium price. The dates are Friday January 18th through Monday the 21st and will offer two and three night stay options per condo.

The OC family schedule continues to fill up for this season with race dates and multiple Capital District Council ski dates that are set for families. We always need family members for volunteers as bus coordinators & event assistants. So if you are able to help out, please contact me. You can also receive family updates by contacting me at mattw63@verizon.net so get up to date by sending me an email.

Matt Wakefield
Family Liaison

September 2012

Summer is gone & fall has just started; that means ski season is right around the corner! The OC Family Ski Season has also started and it goes into high gear with the sign-up on Thursday night, October 4th, for our annual Family Trip to Smugglers Notch, which will take place on Martin Luther King weekend this ski season. The family group and all OC members will be able to take advantage of a super deal on a holiday weekend this season starting on Friday January 18th through Monday the 21st. This trip will offer two and three night stay options per condo. OC family will be also scheduling a full array of additional events and ski dates for this coming 2012-2013 ski season as well as coordinating with all of the varied committees to set up a great selection of family ski days & buses available for your enjoyment. Again this season I will be reaching out to family members for volunteers as family bus coordinators & event assistants. So if you are able to help out, please contact me. Also, are you on my email list for family updates and events? I would appreciate it if you would drop me an email at mattw63@verizon.net to assist me in updating my list and remove any names that are no longer valid.

Looking forward to the 2012/2013 ski season, I must first send out congratulations to the newly elected club officers and board of director members. For Family members, we have many club activities that you can look forward to before the snow flies again. Our annual summer picnic and outing is family oriented. This should prove to be a good time this year for those of you who camp and want to mingle with the other OC Members who you may not have seen this year on the slopes.

Please keep thinking about family skiing events and ideas to send me for review. I definitely need your input for next year's skiing calendar. If you had any special deals you came across last year we can look into those to see if they might be valid for next year. It is my desire to continuously work on finding ways to make next year even better for the family group. Thank you all for your continued support.

Hello OC Family and fellow OC Members, as I write this April Lift line in Mid-March with 60 degree plus temperatures upon me, I was wondering what happened to winter this year. Quite frankly I am ready to close this chapter in my life that is the Winter of 2011/2012. For me it was probably one of the most difficult winters I have ever had, because of the lack of snow, with almost a seemingly light depression setting in every time I looked out the window and saw BROWN, along with other personal issues. So with that said I will move on and look forward to next season. Before I do that, I must mention that this club functions with your support and the direction of club officers. April is election time, so know who the candidates are and make your voting selection count! Club Nominations are March 29th & April 5th with Elections being held April 19th. Closing out, I especially want to thank Paula for a great racing season, the bus committee's for an awesome selection of family buses and Megan for her work on the Winter Carnival. Come on summer, lets skip Spring and get right into the Hot Weather, with a moderately dry season, so Mother Nature will have to bless us with SNOW next winter!

Mother Nature, bring on March, as the OC Winter Carnival is upon us and this annual end of the season event will be full of surprises. This event for 2012 will once again be opened to all members and their families, so make sure to add Saturday the 10th to your calendar. Our OC Family nights at Maple Ski Ridge, $10 tickets from 5 PM to close on Tuesdays & Fridays will be available as long as they are open. We will also continue to offer Family buses on Sundays, just as long as we have 2 buses scheduled. With the area winter thus far through the middle of February being pretty much SNOWLESS, we need to take advantage of every ski opportunity that we can, as the first day of spring will be arriving on the 20th and bringing with it compounded late season ski condition challenges for us to deal with. I hope you season thus far has been a successful one and hope to see you all at the Carnival at Plattekill.

Matt Wakefield Family Liaison