The Deep Cove Ski Club was formed in 1989. It was set up to offer programs that foster healthy lifestyles, community leadership and social networks. The club provides groomed, lighted ski trails to residents of 13 communities in the NL Straits, taking in the communities of Eddies Cove East to Anchor Point. The network of ski trails is used for cross country skiing, snowshoeing and winter walking. The trails are groomed by volunteers from the communities that give their time to provide a solid packed, tracked trail.
The club promotes the benefits of physical activity, the social aspect of being amongst people and networking. The club also promotes family time together, keeping active and enjoying the outdoors.
The ski club currently has two programs organized.
The jackrabbit program is for children starting at age 4 to grade 8. Once children have completed this program, they are then encouraged to become junior leaders, to assist the adult volunteers. This helps the young people within the communities to gain valuable leadership skills.
The second program is a women’s snowshoeing Monday night event. All ladies are encouraged to attend from all communities. Women’s health has become increasingly important in recent years, and this program provides an option for women that may be working during the day to do some physical activity, only able to take part in nightly exercise. The safety of using the lighted trails along with others encourages more women to attend.
The Deep Cove Ski club was in desperate need of a new snowmobile and groomer to provide a solid packed trail for users of the trail system. The equipment that was previously used was approximately 15 years old and basically unreliable. The grooming is done by local volunteers and when breakdowns occurred it became very difficult to get the equipment fixed in a timely manner. Because of the grant received by the IGA, they were able to purchase a new snowmobile and groomer!
