90 replies to this topic

[rivercat]

Old Thumper, on 04 February 2012 - 09:19 AM, said:

Ok - Here's a question:
How many NHSA members would prefer to see the NHSA's fundraising efforts benefiting NH snowmobiling rather than Easter Seals? Nothing against Easter Seals - it is obviously a very worthy cause, but there is really no connection to snowmobiling, and finances are an ever increasing problem for the sport.
Just wondering...
Your thoughts?

Aide to Easter Seals has MANY "facets"
#1 At a local level. I have attended two Easter Seal fundraising dinners lately,, FUN, LAUGHTER, CAMARADERIE, TEAM EFFORTS, and a NIGHT OUT for all sorts of folks, many who do not snowmobile

#2 ONE of the great accomplishments directly to those not interested is that when this began 40 years ago this year,,, it ENCOURAGED the DEVELOPMENT of the State trail system we have TODAY,,,, trails were built and connected so people could Ride-In!

#3 The Kids and families who have been benefited thru the summer experience at Camp Sno -Mo truly are amazing,, It's always easy to put our own "priorities" ahead of others,,,when a child has a disability it affects the ENTIRE family in some ways,,,
MY Daughter and Son in law have Triplets who are 4 Years old and healthy,,,, HOWEVER I took them to disney on Ice,, It was $288 for the tickets,,,, $40 to park the 2 cars once inside the Kids KNEW they better not ask for any "treats" as it is a "handicap to have three the SAME age,,, ONE Cotton Candy was $12 ,,,,,,,THREE could not happen,,,, I had to think,, how sad,, yet how lucky to have healthy kids that could run and jump and be active but ,,,,,,,,the "sacrifices" that had to be made everyday raising them.

#4 As organized as our sport is to have a charitable organization such as Easter Seals give purpose and meaning, good will, to a deserving group who do not always have the same privileges as the rest of us. As a dad who took his healthy active kids to Scout Camp along with scores of other boys, I can say blending our Scout's with the Easter Seals kids was a very "profound event"

Taking the "effort" of Easter Seals fundraising away from the clubs who truly recognize the REAL BENEFITS is sort of like taking the snow away from our sport

this in NO WAY was intended as a hard hit to those who asked,,,,, AFTER FOURTY years,,, we can almost call it snowmobiling "tradition"

Edited by rivercat, 04 February 2012 - 04:51 PM.

[OldViperRider]

I think something that needs to be mentioned is that the donations, that are raised by NHSA and the clubs in NH, go 100% to Camp Sno-Mo! I have been told none of the funds go to Easter Seals headquarters. All of it goes to the summer camp for the children.

[Bilbo]

rivercat, on 04 February 2012 - 04:49 PM, said:

Aide to Easter Seals has MANY "facets"
#1 At a local level. I have attended two Easter Seal fundraising dinners lately,, FUN, LAUGHTER, CAMARADERIE, TEAM EFFORTS, and a NIGHT OUT for all sorts of folks, many who do not snowmobile

#2 ONE of the great accomplishments directly to those not interested is that when this began 40 years ago this year,,, it ENCOURAGED the DEVELOPMENT of the State trail system we have TODAY,,,, trails were built and connected so people could Ride-In!

#3 The Kids and families who have been benefited thru the summer experience at Camp Sno -Mo truly are amazing,, It's always easy to put our own "priorities" ahead of others,,,when a child has a disability it affects the ENTIRE family in some ways,,,
MY Daughter and Son in law have Triplets who are 4 Years old and healthy,,,, HOWEVER I took them to disney on Ice,, It was $288 for the tickets,,,, $40 to park the 2 cars once inside the Kids KNEW they better not ask for any "treats" as it is a "handicap to have three the SAME age,,, ONE Cotton Candy was $12 ,,,,,,,THREE could not happen,,,, I had to think,, how sad,, yet how lucky to have healthy kids that could run and jump and be active but ,,,,,,,,the "sacrifices" that had to be made everyday raising them.

#4 As organized as our sport is to have a charitable organization such as Easter Seals give purpose and meaning, good will, to a deserving group who do not always have the same privileges as the rest of us. As a dad who took his healthy active kids to Scout Camp along with scores of other boys, I can say blending our Scout's with the Easter Seals kids was a very "profound event"

Taking the "effort" of Easter Seals fundraising away from the clubs who truly recognize the REAL BENEFITS is sort of like taking the snow away from our sport

this in NO WAY was intended as a hard hit to those who asked,,,,, AFTER FOURTY years,,, we can almost call it snowmobiling "tradition"

Good Post Rivercat. This is certainly not the first time the question of Easter Seals support has been raised over the years. An old friend of mine , the late Dave Mayhew served as NHSA president and on the Easter Seals committee. He used to suggest that every snowmobiler should take the time to visit Camp Sno Mo and see what the money raised has done. It's remarkable to say the least. Many of us could never imagine what a week away at camp can mean for some of these families.

[Pantera99]

Geesh, I thought this was about why so many haven't registared sleds ?? How did you turn this around into an Easter Seal's Fundraising issue ????

From what I read from "Thumper" he only aksed ( ok, correct me if I am wrong ) how we could raise money for the sport being a non-profit organization of club's... yes In-directly we all have given our time and cash flow's toward's Easter Seal's to keep the camp running each year..
Some with Matching $$$ what was raised from activities not slated for the Easter Seal Camp directly. "Thumper" is not to far of Track here..without funding ( or less funding I should say ) of RTP or GIA fund's..club's will find it hard to keep "normal type" operation's of clubhouse expenditures, trail improvements, along with newer or maintained equipment in the near future.

Like Old Viper Rider, I was pretty sure all fund money raised for Easter Seal's went just towards keeping Camp-Sno-Mo operating.

On that Note: ... There have been "MANY" buisness's whom are/are not actually snowmobiler's whom Donate many Item's, too a well run "Club" organizations need's at "Their" cost or just flat hands it to them, which help's clubs with tight budgeted items. This is at times just Club member's with Excellent knowledge as just "Time well spent" glad they could help out attitude, such as our "Landwowners".

Maybe the question here would be...Would it be more appearent to give a monetary donation to a well deserved club ( raise club dues ? ) in lieu of registaring a sled or multiple sleds having Low snow conditions to ride on in the Lower 2/3 rd's of NH ? this all comes down to where you Ride sort of perspective Again.. I don't have any Fact's based on where folk's are registaring in Total's, but willing to venture saying Southern NH get's more registation's made out too sleds or off-road-vehicles. When Low-snow conditions it is very clear that folk's won't registar their sleds or Join a Club for the Season...
After just saying this...You also need to consider that not all or MOST of the sledding community here in NH can Travel way above the Notch.. to donate time, or go to snowmobiling function's and activities. So, unless we can "ALL" come-up with a viable way to Pay-as-we-go approach, what we have now is working. If we just say" only North of the Notch really get's snow, and put all the Egg's in that Basket... Then you can Gaurantee Snowmobiling in NH is going to take a VERY HARD HIT !!! keep this in mind, it is economic's.

[OldViperRider]

It all is about fund raising for trails, Easter Seals, clubs or any other worthy causes.

The partnership between the NHSA and Camp-Sno-Mo started 40 years ago. Over those 40 years the NHSA with the help of all affiliated clubs in NH have contributed over $2.4 MILLION to Camp-Sno-Mo! That is over $60,000 every year.
You just need to attend one Ride-In and see the smiling faces of the kids of Camp-Sno-Mo and you would never question why it is worth every penny!

[jhwentworth]

rivercat, on 04 February 2012 - 04:49 PM, said:

Aide to Easter Seals has MANY "facets"
#1 At a local level. I have attended two Easter Seal fundraising dinners lately,, FUN, LAUGHTER, CAMARADERIE, TEAM EFFORTS, and a NIGHT OUT for all sorts of folks, many who do not snowmobile

#2 ONE of the great accomplishments directly to those not interested is that when this began 40 years ago this year,,, it ENCOURAGED the DEVELOPMENT of the State trail system we have TODAY,,,, trails were built and connected so people could Ride-In!

#3 The Kids and families who have been benefited thru the summer experience at Camp Sno -Mo truly are amazing,, It's always easy to put our own "priorities" ahead of others,,,when a child has a disability it affects the ENTIRE family in some ways,,,
MY Daughter and Son in law have Triplets who are 4 Years old and healthy,,,, HOWEVER I took them to disney on Ice,, It was $288 for the tickets,,,, $40 to park the 2 cars once inside the Kids KNEW they better not ask for any "treats" as it is a "handicap to have three the SAME age,,, ONE Cotton Candy was $12 ,,,,,,,THREE could not happen,,,, I had to think,, how sad,, yet how lucky to have healthy kids that could run and jump and be active but ,,,,,,,,the "sacrifices" that had to be made everyday raising them.

#4 As organized as our sport is to have a charitable organization such as Easter Seals give purpose and meaning, good will, to a deserving group who do not always have the same privileges as the rest of us. As a dad who took his healthy active kids to Scout Camp along with scores of other boys, I can say blending our Scout's with the Easter Seals kids was a very "profound event"

Taking the "effort" of Easter Seals fundraising away from the clubs who truly recognize the REAL BENEFITS is sort of like taking the snow away from our sport

this in NO WAY was intended as a hard hit to those who asked,,,,, AFTER FOURTY years,,, we can almost call it snowmobiling "tradition"

Dave, those are all good reasons, but for those who want to consider the Easter Seals contributions on a cost/benefit basis some may not see the value of them. I'd suggest looking at other successful organizations to see what they are doing. The Boston Red Sox have sponsored the Jimmy Fund since 1953, and there really isn't a connection between baseball and cancer research. The Patriots support 16 charities with little apparent benefit to the bottom line. Countless non-profits contribute hours of time and millions of dollars every year. Why are both for-profit and non-profit organizations so interested in giving away their money? Maybe for great publicity, better public image, greater political influence, increased pride within the employees/membership, and increased access to customers and partners. Putting it very coldly, the Easter Seal connection has bought us some things we badly need: better relations with landowners and a positive relationship with state government. Probably a good deal for all involved.

[Pantera99]

Exactly !!! J.W. This is why Sledding has grown so well & for the most part more accepted as a Group or Organization that does for the most part do goodwill for other's...
Dave ( rivercat) has done a commendable Job of showing why his Bridge project would be good for all, snowmobiling aside...

[Skip]

OldViperRider, on 05 February 2012 - 03:18 PM, said:

It all is about fund raising for trails, Easter Seals, clubs or any other worthy causes.

The partnership between the NHSA and Camp-Sno-Mo started 40 years ago. Over those 40 years the NHSA with the help of all affiliated clubs in NH have contributed over $2.4 MILLION to Camp-Sno-Mo! That is over $60,000 every year.
You just need to attend one Ride-In and see the smiling faces of the kids of Camp-Sno-Mo and you would never question why it is worth every penny!

Mark, it was a true pleasure spending some time with you and Helga this weekend at the Ride-In. You two are class acts, and helped give me a few calming moments in some especially hectic situations, and I truly appreciated your words of wisdom at breakfast this morning!

Thanks again for making the trip and making a positive contribution. After all, it is truly for the Easter Seals kids and their families. If anyone could have seen the smiles of joy from those three kids as they got to lead the Snowmobile Parade last night from the cab of the Prinoth (thank you Prinoth & Brian & Al) then you would truly understand why dozens of clubs and thousands of snowmobilers have contributed and grown this event for the past 40 years.

I'll just make a couple of quick points that have already been brought up here:

The work & donations are striclty voluntary. Clubs are free to participate if they can, or concentrate their resources elsewhere. It is a judgment call for each club & its membership.

All monies go to Camp Sno-Mo for familes to attend that great facility.

The event brings extreme positive publicity to the snowmobiling community each year, and and virtually every opening and closing ceremony you can find a powerful politician that is attending and that supports our sport 100%. Without that support in Concord there has been many occassions over the year's where our funding and our trails could have been negatively impacted by those that don't appreciate or understand what we do. As pointed out above, its Politics 101.

The event brings in thousands of dollars to the local economy where it is held, and a number of communities actively lobby to have us hold the event in their Community. This year along with the local businesses the Town of Gorham literally rolled out the red carpet and built and helped maintain a "snow" road through the entire downtown fro mthe Town & Country to the Airport.

And finally, it is a "Ride In" where on most years hundreds and hundreds of snowmobilers ride their sleds to and from all or part of the event. This year was no excepetion as contrary to many rumors out there, hundreds of miles of finely groomed trailswere available due to the hard work and generosity of BOT and the surrounding Clubs!

In a tough economy and horrible winter conditons across much of the State nearly $74,000 was raised this year with approximately $12,000 raised during the Ride-In itself.

Thank you to all you generous sledders out there that will now insure that many kids that are not as fortunate as many of us will get to spend some quality time at Camp SnoMo this year. This weekend made me extremely proud to be a part of the NHSA!

[Bilbo]

Another successful year, that's great

[OldViperRider]

Skip, on 05 February 2012 - 05:18 PM, said:

................ If anyone could have seen the smiles of joy from those three kids as they got to lead the Snowmobile Parade last night from the cab of the Prinoth (thank you Prinoth & Brian & Al) then you would truly understand why dozens of clubs and thousands of snowmobilers have contributed and grown this event for the past 40 years.

..............................
Thank you to all you generous sledders out there that will now insure that many kids that are not as fortunate as many of us will get to spend some quality time at Camp SnoMo this year. This weekend made me extremely proud to be a part of the NHSA!

Skip, you and your team did a really great job and each of those smiles were PRICELESS!

[dudsxlt]

I'm not reg this year, no season lol, if I get a ride in or two at best.