Easy Bucks winters for February were Monika Taylor of Rangeley and Tom Kasper of Massachusetts.  Neither were present. 

The March meeting will be held on March 18^th at the Episcopal Church on Main St. in Rangeley.  This is our annual steak and lobster dinner and we still have room for more reservations.  Reservation forms were sent out with the February newsletter.  If you want to sign up, you can call me at 207-864-9047 or e-mail to info@rangeleysnowmobile.com and let me know and you can pay at the door.  Dinner will be served at 6:30 PM.  Conditions permitting, we are planning a club ride on the 18^th.  If you want to go on the ride, be at The Clubhouse Restaurant at 10 AM.  Ride will last approximately 4 hours. Matt Kennedy, our main groomer driver, will be leading the group. 

 Call it the Winter that wasn’t or something like that, this has been an unusual winter for this area.  We can, however, be grateful that we were able to keep the trails rideable for the most part.  Many clubs in the State weren’t able to run their groomers at all.  .

A Winter like this is very detrimental to this area, not only to the Snowmobile Club, but to the local businesses.  Everyone in Rangeley is feeling the affects of an almost snow-less winter. 

The amount of grant funds we receive from the State of Maine is based on our grooming hours.  We need to log 2000 hours total grooming time to receive the full amount allocated to our Club.  It looks like we’re not even going to reach half that amount this year.  This is how we make our hefty groomer payments.  We will be okay this season thanks to good seasons and surplus funds left from the past few years.  Next year will be the problem. 

The businesses who donate to the club have done what they can but we haven’t received the usual amount of money this year.  Hopefully when summer businesses picks up, some of the businesses will fulfill their pledges. 

In the meantime, let’s think about fundraisers during the summer months when there are plenty of people around.  There are a lot of different ways we can raise funds – we just need some ideas and manpower.  If anyone would be interested in helping to form and be on a fundraising committee, please let me know.   Several ideas have been mentioned but they all need manpower to carry these plans out. 

I’m sure you have all heard of Pampered Chef products – The Pampered Chef has a great fundraising program and I have set a fundraising program up on my personal website.  Just go to www.pamperedchef.biz/gailgcooks click on “order products” in the lower left corner, type in “Rangeley Lakes Snowmobile Club”.  A list of product categories will appear and you can make your selection from this area.  Make sure you select that you want the items shipped to your home.  Pampered Chef gives us a check for 15% of everything sold through this fundraiser.  Deadline for orders is April 9^th. 

If anyone has knowledge of where we might be able to pick up used bingo hall equipment, please let us know.  Watch the classified ads in your newspapers.  We can, as a non-profit organization, get a license to run a weekly bingo and this should be a good summer (or maybe year-round) fundraiser.  New Bingo equipment is very expensive but we should be able to pick up some used stuff somewhere. 

In an effort to save postage fees, there will be no newsletter for April.  Any news will be posted on the web page.  A May/June newsletter will be sent out.  Let’s get some fundraising information into that newsletter.  Any fundraising idea will be welcome!!! 

Just keep these dates in mind:

The April meeting will be held on April 8^th, the May meeting will be held on May 13^th and the June meeting will be held on June 10^th.  Nominations for election of Officers and Board of Directors will be taken at the May meeting and the election will be held during the June meeting.  These three meetings will all be pot luck dinners.  Just bring a dish to share with others.

Until next month,

Please visit our Sponsors page to check out businesses who have donated or pledged to donate to our grooming and trail maintenance program for this season. Be sure to patronize these businesses when in the area. It is due to their donations that we have the great riding conditions we all enjoy!