Mobile ski library offers free use of equipment
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This article was published 09/03/2021 (1767 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Some libraries have books and some have skis. The Winter Trail Association, a local non-profit organization, has been busy grooming ski trails to give as many Winnipeggers as possible the chance to get out and ski trails right in their own neighborhood. No driving required.
Nelson Flett has been breaking and grooming ski trails since late November and not with a machine. He dons his skis and goes out and breaks ski trails the old-fashioned way.
The Winter Trail Association has been able to groom ski trails in 30 parks across the city, including Centennial Park, Whittier Park, Bunn’s Creek, Kleysen Park, Dakota Park and Kirkbridge Park, among many others.
The group also operates a mobile equipment library featuring donated skis, skates, sleds, and snowshoes. Its mobile ski library launched on Feb. 19 and will deliver a trailer of skis and snowshoes to three city parks per day on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays until the snow melts (which may not be too much longer). The ski library remains open for three hours at each park.
I met Flett and two volunteers at Stephen Juba Park on the opening weekend in February. He and the volunteers helped kids and adults into skis and cheered them on as newcomers to skiing and snow shoeing traversed the paths Flett had groomed.
“For no advance notice that we were going to be there, it was an awesome turnout,” he said of the library’s inaugural evening at Centennial Park
“We are going to be in a park every weekend until the snow is gone,” he said.
Although they have plenty of donated skis, children’s skis are always in high demand.
“It’s a long day in the sun, but my job is awesome,” Flett said. “I love it.”
To find out where and when the mobile ski library will be operating visit: https://www.winterpeg.org/calendar/
Helen Lepp Friesen is a community correspondent for Fort Garry. You can contact her at helenfriesen@hotmail.com