SFL BULLETIN Summer 1996 Ski for Light, Inc. 1455 West Lake Street Minneapolis, MN 55408 From The President by Nancy Rowan Getting in touch with the '90's is not always an easy thing to do. Recently, my family made a huge step by upgrading our ancient MacPlus to a Performa. Unfortunately, I missed out on ten years of information pertaining to the hows and whys of computers, or as we say here, confusers. So, in the end, here I am with pen and paper pondering this and thinking that Ski for Light has successfully moved very nicely into the '90's. What does this mean? We are on-line thanks to Judy Dixon and her work building an SFL web site; largely through the efforts of Jeff Pagels and Mary Mosbey, we have corporate sponsorship thanks to JanSport and Exel Peltonen; we are involved in many fund-raising activities due to the hard work of the fund-raising committee headed by Jack Newbury; and we continue to strengthen our ties to Sons of Norway. To get information regarding SFL via the Internet, you need to have a connection to the Internet and point your browser to http://www.tmn.com/sfl/home.html. The information includes, but is not limited to, next year's event information, regional happenings, applications, and general information regarding our program. August 15-17 Ski for Light will be brought together with JanSport at The Outdoor Retail Show in Salt Lake City. This is the first time we have joined a corporate sponsor as such at one of their shows. This will give Ski for Light a chance to expose our corporate sponsor program to hundreds of companies that do business in the great outdoors. In turn, we can inform them of the huge market of disabled people that are potential buyers of outdoor products. The Fund-raising Committee is hard at work raising money to help keep the event costs down for the participants and guides. One way they are doing this is an auction being held on October 26 in Minneapolis. Auctions are a great way to raise money while having fun. Keep reading in future bulletin issues to find out more about this and other fund-raising activities. Being an even-numbered year, the Sons of Norway has been involved in their conventions. We were invited to attend the District conventions to speak or display information about Ski for Light. The District conventions were in June; in August the International Convention will be held in Minot, North Dakota. Once again, we have been invited to have a booth, make a presentation to the entire assembly and to show our new video. This is very exciting, the Sons of Norway has supported Ski for Light in so many ways that it is wonderful to have a chance to spend time "in their court" to recognize this. The Sons of Norway has also given us the opportunity to write articles for their magazine The Viking. This magazine has a circulation of 56,000. We are getting articles in quarterly and look forward to future presentations. We had a great event in Rapid City, South Dakota last January. Although the weather was unusually cold, the planning and flexibility by those organizing was amazing. Thank you to all of those people that stayed up late and got up early to make plans for the group each day. In late September, we will begin planning in earnest for the event in Brainerd. I look forward to meeting with this group of people. There are so many jobs and assignments to do. I extend an invitation to those that wish to help plan to ask where their efforts can best be used now and in the future. It is hard to believe that so much work is being done now that summer is full-fledged and skis are back in the basement, but as you will see within the pages of this bulletin, there is a lot of work going on now to ensure that we will have a successful Ski for Light 1997. Pen and paper are gone now, the computer and I are getting on better terms. Best wishes to everyone for a happy and healthy summer. Announcing Ski for Light '97 The twenty-second annual Ski for Light International Week will be held from Sunday, February 23 through Sunday, March 2, 1997 in Brainerd, Minnesota. Participants will stay at Cragun's Resort and Conference Center and ski right outside the door on Craguns' 40 kilometers of packed, groomed trails. This will be the third time that the Ski for Light International Week has been held at Cragun's. Anyone who attended either of the two previous events held there, in 1990 and 1993, will have fond memories of Cragun's hospitality and food, and of the convenience of being able to ski near the hotel. Applications for visually-impaired participants may be requested from: Larry Showalter 206 Vista Drive Gahanna, OH 43230 (614) 478-7898 Applications for mobility-impaired participants may be requested from: Jeff Pagels 1400 Carole Lane Green Bay, WI 54313 (414) 494-5572 Applications for instructor/guides are available from: JoAnne Jorud 3940 Hubbard Avenue N. Robbinsdale, MN 55422 (612) 533-7415 Information about the 1997 event is also available on the Ski for Light Internet home page. Please come and join us for a truly spectacular event in 1997! Auction Action Do you want a personalized "home page" on the Internet? How about a vacation on the rock-bound coast of Maine, tickets to a Vikings game, or a superior Merlot? All this and more will be available by proxy or in person at SFL Auction '96. Auction '96 will take place October 26 at the Zuhrah Shrine Center in Minneapolis. The gala evening will start at 6:00 P.M. with a cocktail hour followed by dinner and a live auction. A silent auction will be held during the cocktail and dinner hours with winners announced during the live auction. If you can't attend in person, proxy bidding will be available. Pat Gabriel will send you instructions and a list of auction items. Simply drop him a note before September 15 at: 495 Birmingham Street St. Paul, MN 55106 (612) 774-4671 We still need volunteers to help solicit items for auctioning and individual contributions. If you can help or have an item or items you can contribute, please contact Pat at the address above or JoAnne Jorud at: 3940 Hubbard Avenue N. Robbinsdale, MN 55422 (612) 533-7415 Some specific categories where we need items are adult beverages, resort and travel, sports and theater tickets, specialty foods, Scandinavian items, exercise and ski equipment, dining out, and household furnishings and crafts. Gift certificates are welcome, particularly where timing or sizing might be a concern. It is important that we have an idea of market value and any minimum bid information you think we should impose. Donations can be shipped to the Ski for Light office. Previous auctions, run by Tore Lund, have been great successes. Please help our co-chairs, Pat and JoAnne, repeat this accomplishment. Howdi! by Tomoya "Tommy" Uchida I want to talk about my experience during SFL International. It was full of excitement, surprises, and moving moments. Two weeks after I participated in SFL Japan, I came to South Dakota. We met SFL staff at the airport in Rapid City. As I think about it now, it seems normal, but I was surprised when I heard them speaking English. I was anxious but felt good that I finally came to the United States. When we arrived at the hotel, there were more SFL people, greeting us very friendly. I was still overwhelmed by the fact that all of them were speaking English, but started feeling a little better as I began to meet people individually. I decided, "I will wing it." to survive this week. SFL International started the next day, and continuously kept me excited. First, I was excited to find that there were many planned activities besides skiing. Starting from morning exercise, they kept us busy all day by holding special interest sessions, dances, etc. I also liked that I could choose whether or not to participate in these events. The next topic is food. There was lots of food. Some of my friends who had been to the United States before said, "American food will make you really fat." After the first day's dinner, I understood what they were talking about. It was so good. I love American food. The weather didn't cooperate with us, so we skied only two and a half days. However, I had a wonderful time. My guide, Jeanne, is American, so she speaks English. Well, I requested an American guide, but I started to worry about my ability to communicate in English as soon as I had sent my application. That anxiety disappeared the moment I met her. She listened to me patiently, and spoke to me slowly until I understood her. Sometimes, Jeanne and I enjoyed talking while we skied. Other times, I felt just like I was skiing by myself. Her thoughtful guidance was just great. I really appreciated it. I also enjoyed the special interest sessions and other events that were held when we couldn't go skiing. There were always choices and I always found at least one that I was interested in. The last and most important thing that I want to tell you is that, during SFL International, I never thought about my disability. There were no barriers between able-bodied (temporarily, of course) and disabled. I was amazed that even when I was being assisted, it came so smooth. There were over two hundred people, but I could talk to everyone as if they were my ol' buddies. It made me feel at home. I'm really glad I participated in SFL International this year. I had such a good time that I want to create the same atmosphere in Japan. I am going to work with the SFL Japan staff to promote the benefit of SFL activities in Japan. Thank you very much. Getting Involved in the Nitty-Gritty Much of the work of running the SFL organization throughout the year is done by more than a dozen committees that are appointed by the SFL President. Below is a list of committee chairs. Please feel free to contact these individuals if you have any ideas you would like to share or if you would like to volunteer your services in a particular area. Budget and Finance Pat Gabriel 495 Birmingham Street St. Paul, MN 55106 (612) 774-4671 Friends of Ski for Light Laurinda Steele Lacey 5028 Allan Road Bethesda, MD 20816 (301) 320-7767 Fund-raising Jack Newbury P.O. Box 5 Boothbay Harbor, ME 04538-0005 (207) 633-2055 Guide Recruitment Brenda Seeger P.O. Box 414 Westbrook, MN 56183 (507) 274-5502 Long-Range Planning Lisa Wangberg 307 Vandenberg Street Goldsborough, NC 27534-5461 (919) 751-0793 Participant Recruitment Richard Casey 415 East 52nd Street, #12H New York, NY 10022-6424 (212) 753-1046 Publicity and Public Relations Annemarie Cooke 5 Mcauliffe Drive N. Brunswick, NJ 08902 (908) 247-2038 Regional Liaison Deborah Wiese 500 Woodingham, Apt. 19 East Lansing, MI 48823 (517) 351-3021 Site Selection Jeanne MacKenzie 3505 Buckskin Trail LaPorte, CO 80535-9311 (970) 224-9690 Sons of Norway and Norwegian Community Scott Bertrand 12284 W. Tennessee Avenue Lakewood, CO 80228 (303) 986-6714 Thank-yous and Acknowledgements Vicki O'Brien P.O. Box 7618 Jackson, WY 83002 (307) 734-8004 1997 SFL Event Judy Dixon 1101 N. Stuart Street Arlington, VA 22201 (703) 276-9191 Kayaking in Alaska by Doug Wakefield The 750-mile-long coastline between Seward and Homer, with its ice-strewn fjords and tide-water glaciers, rugged islands and dense hemlock forests, is magnificent and wild. In the spirit of the first peoples who explored this beautiful area in seal-skin boats, we'll paddle the rocky coastline in contemporary fiberglass sea kayaks. This paragraph is from the information Celeste Lopes and Robin Thomas received from the Sierra Club when preparing to take a wilderness trip in Alaska a year ago. While most of us in the lower 48 were roasting during July of 1995, Robin and Celeste were kayaking in water so cold that they were told "if you overturn your kayak, we probably can't get you to safety before you freeze." The trip began on Tuesday, July 25th, when Celeste, a blind SFL board member and Robin, an SFL guide in 1994 joined up in Chicago for the 7-hour flight to Anchorage. The Sierra Club had rated the trip at moderately difficult for people with moderate disabilities. 10 people in all took part, 5 per team. Friday, the team moved from Anchorage to Seward, 100 mile south down the Kenai peninsula. This town was severely damaged by an earthquake in 1964. While watching a movie about the area, Celeste felt the ground shake. Being from New York, she thought nothing of it, just a subway going by. Then realization struck, there are no subways in Alaska, Yes, right on cue, a small quake had shaken Seward right in the middle of the earthquake scene in the movie. After a little kayak training in Seward Bay, the team was transported by chartered boat near the Hulgate Glacier in the Kenai Fjord. This was to be the base camp for the next 7 nights. The days were spent exploring some of the most unique landscape in the world. Sunday and Monday involved trips along the front of the Hulgate glacier. Can you get much from a sightseeing trip along a glacier if you can't see the scenery? Most definitely, Celeste says. Glaciers are very noisy. A glacier is a very slow moving river of ice. As it moves it digs up rocks and dirt in its path. When the front of a glacier reaches a cliff such as at the edge of a fjord it starts to push out into mid-air held up by the cohesion of the ice. However, before too long, the suspended ice becomes too heavy and gigantic pieces break away falling into the sea. This process is called calving and is4he main producer of icebergs. The kayaks used by the team were two-person type, one person sitting behind the other. There was one one-person kayak that Celeste got to try alone later in the week. Tuesday was the only day Celeste asked herself, "What am I doing here?" The team took a 16-mile trip to the Peterson Glacier. The day was cold and rainy. The first excitement occurred when a killer whale was spotted. Then while having lunch on a beach, it became very apparently that they had invaded the dining room of a bear. The team did not wait to see when the bear would return, they finished their lunch in the kayaks ready to beat a hasty retreat if necessary. It was on the way back when Celeste said she really questioned her sanity--cold, wet, and out of adrenaline, she found herself pretty exhausted. The only excitement on Wednesday occurred during a noontime hike. As the team rounded a bend in the trail they came face to back with a large brown bear. The team froze silent, then slowly and very quietly slipped away. Whatever the bear was doing it didn't seem interested in looking over its shoulder. Thursday, the team broke camp and headed for an overnight outdoor site--no cabin. The glacier they approached was very active with pieces constantly breaking away and falling into the fjord. At the campsite, they noticed signs that a bear had been around. So, before going to sleep all the food was placed in an overturned kayak some distance from the tents. Sure enough, the next morning revealed fresh bear tracks circling the overturned kayak. Celeste and Robin felt the trip was a real adventure and well worth the effort. It's also a good way to keep cool when you've just about had it with the city heat of July.