Well folks, I must first apologize for putting a post out there saying that our fundraising tickets were going fast so get one soon, this certainly is not the case but the thinking was it would push folks to get their ticket, this certainly has not worked and to be honest ticket sales are dismal at best. Not sure why our members aren’t buying this year but we would like to give some perspective as to why this fundraiser is so vitally important to YOUR club. Trails don’t just magically happen, a handful of dedicated members make them happen, we have a membership of around 600 and we might have 20 who are actively involved. Just to give you a few examples, this past week we had a volunteer take a day from his business and went out to do signage for the day, did a great job and fixed the signage up for a new section of trail as well as fixing other signs on the way to and from the job. The next day we had a groomer mechanic coming from the dealer unexpectedly as it was supposed to be the next day, so this same member took another day from his business and met the mechanic at 8:00 am to give direction and help where he could (many hands make for light work, as they say) they never finished until 1:00 am, that’s correct 1:00 am, when i’m sure most of our members were fast asleep. We have another member that on two occasions this fall has taken his employees who are on the payroll and delivered wood to a shelter and on the other occasion fixed a bridge, which took most of a day, he pays these men out of his pocket, we will not see a bill from this member. We need to replace another groomer very soon at a cost of $250,000 to $300,000, funding is becoming scarce and the federation may not be partially funding groomers in the near future, so if you think YOUR club doesn’t need this fundraiser, you are sadly mistaken. We would like to make around $30,000 from this fundraiser so it will take 10 years to gather enough funds to buy a new machine without funding, by this time our new groomer will be worn out. I hope this gives our members some insight into what YOUR club is up against constantly, what the prizes on the ticket are in unimportant, buying a ticket IS IMPORTANT, if you can’t make the time to come out and physically support your club that’s fine but please make every effort to buy a ticket and maybe sell a few as well. Thank You