The Kimberley Volunteer Ski Patrol Society has launched a GoFundMe in order to cover the costs of their liability insurance, which this year was raised from $3500 to $4500.
Society president Mike Daigle, who’s been involved for the past 26 years, said last year was the first time they had to get their own insurance.
At RCR’s other resorts, the volunteers are covered by Canadian Ski Patrol, which has insurance, Daigle explained they have much lower rates than theirs because they have so many members across Canada.
The $1000 increase in price plus the fact that they’re unable to do their usual fundraisers due to the pandemic made starting the GoFundMe page necessary.
“Usually we do our ski swap, which we didn’t do this year because of COVID,” Daigle explained. “We had just started our normal raffle in the spring, where we raffle off a seasons pass, we had just started that when of course COVID hit and everything came to a grinding halt on that so we really didn’t raise any funds this year. Our bank account was in okay condition, but not having those fundraising opportunities definitely cuts into it.”
READ MORE: Ski patrol starts season with ski swap Saturday
Last year Kimberley Alpine Resort helped out their cause by donating money raised at their Community Day, which totalled around $1900, but they haven’t committed to that this year according to Daigle.
READ MORE: Community Day 2020 at Kimberley Alpine Resort
This year the Volunteer Ski Patrol team consists of 19 members. Like Daigle, many of the members stick on for a long time; several have over 20 years experience and the average time on the team is about nine years.
“We enjoy what we do, we’re pretty close to the paid patrollers, we do all the same duties that they do pretty much,” Daigle said. We’re all doing the same sort of stuff and everybody’s out there to have fun and it’s a social thing as well, not right now of course.”
In addition to the increase in cost of insurance, Daigle said their training costs this season also increased, costing them about $2900 for two days of training
To make a donation to support the Kimberley Volunteer Ski Patrol Society, visit this link: https://gofund.me/d101cf46
paul.rodgers@kimberleybulletin
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