by Sara Gray, YourMidloExchange.com
sgray@yourmidloexchange.com

Temperatures once again soared into the upper 80s over the weekend but local skiers were thinking cool thoughts at the Richmond Ski Club annual Winter Sports Extravaganza.

Music provided by Relic helped draw a crowd to the parking lot of the Ski Center at Sycamore Square Shopping Center and refreshments, equipment sales and door prizes kept them there. Organizers say, despite the weather, they expected around 250 people to swing by throughout the four hour event.

“This is our fourth year [in this location],” coordinator of the event and Vice President of Activities for the Richmond Ski Club Dave Berg said. “We are doing it in concert with the Ski Center. They set up the tents and tables and provided the refreshments and the band … The only problem is the last two years it’s been in the 80s out here and no one’s really thinking skiing. It’s hard to get them in that mindset to think about the ski season.”

Still, the event served as a reminder of what is right around the corner. The Ski Club holds their first meeting in October and already has a plethora of activities planned. The Winter Sports Extravaganza served as kick off.

Beyond ski equipment, visitors could visit a number of booths dedicated to general fitness, volunteer for the Special Olympics winter games and sign up for ski trips later in the season.

“One of the main new things is we’ve got a special promotion trying to encourage people to join our trips,” Berg said. “We have 11 different ski trips going out this year. We have two trips to Europe, we have three weekend trips and the rest of the trips we’re going to California, British Columbia … We’ve got trips to fit just about anybody’s desire.”

The event also served as a sort of membership drive for the already 500-member strong Richmond Ski Club. The club has been in existence for over 50 years and, stationed in Richmond city, draws members from all over the state. It is family friendly and is a private, non-profit organization which supports Special Olympics and the adaptive ski program at Wintergreen through various internal fundraising programs throughout the year.

“We encourage people to join the club and to go on ski trips and meet other people that ski and snowboard,” Berg said. “It’s a lot of camaraderie. We also do a lot of things during the non-skiing season. We go bicycling in the Shenandoah Valley and down in the tidewater area. We have social events two or three times every month and we have a few non-ski trips as well.”

Skiing generally begins in December and trips run about once a week from January through mid-March.

To join the Richmond Ski Club, visit their Web site at www.richmondskiclub.org