Grants help club replace kids ski program equipment

The Priest Lake Nordic Club has received several grants which have enabled the club to begin replacing its cross-country ski equipment for the club’s kids' ski program.

Innovia Foundation awarded an Equinox Foundation Grant in the amount of $5,000; Priest Lake People Helping People awarded a $5,000 grant; and the Priest Lake Kaniksu Lion’s Club gave a $500 donation. The club has also received over $600 in recent private donations.

These funds have been used to purchase 44 sets of new Rossignol skis, boots and poles to begin replacing equipment that was purchased in 2004. The new equipment is being purchased through Outdoor Experience in Sandpoint, Idaho.

Each season the Priest Lake Nordic Club hosts approximately 150 – 200 school children from the three west Bonner County elementary schools – Priest River, Idaho Hills and Priest Lake. In the past, the club has also hosted students from a Sandpoint charter school.

The club co-hosts and provides ski equipment at Idaho Parks and Recreation’s “Free Ski Day” which is held each year on the first Saturday in January at the Indian Creek Unit of the Priest Lake State Park.

Priest Lake now has over 30 miles of groomed cross-country ski and snow shoe trails. Popular areas are the Priest Lake Golf Course, Hanna Flats, Chipmunk Rapids and Indian Creek. Hill’s Resort grooms the golf course, while Nordic club volunteers groom Hanna Flats and Chipmunk Rapids. The trail systems are part of Idaho Parks and Recreation’s Park N’ Ski program. Annual passes to use the trails are only $25 and available on-line at: parksandrecreation.idaho.gov.