Summer Greetings NENSA Community ~
We are officially unveiling our
NENSA COVID-19 Considerations
for our races and events this coming season here in today's Kickzone. As you are well aware, the COVID-19 pandemic is a moving target, with hot spots, outbreaks, and "safer" zones changing daily and weekly. We will continue to monitor state and local guidelines, and update you as the event and race dates get closer. Our goal is to be able to safely offer racing here in New England this winter. It will not look the same as in years past, but that's OK. See box below for our NENSA COVID contingency plans and guidelines.
Kait Miller, NENSA's new Youth & Introductory Program Director, has put together, as part of our NENSA BLM initiatives, a fantastic resource list of Youth Outreach Programs. These are programs and organizations operating in the East that work to mitigate barriers to entry in cross country skiing and provide children, regardless of their background, the opportunity to ski. Please check out the box below to learn about these programs, and how you or your club can get involved.
Here's what we have in store for you in this week's KickZone in the boxes below ~
- NENSA COVID Contingency Plans for races & events this coming season
- Youth Outreach Program Resources
- Final DAY of the July virtual Roy-llerski Challenge - check out link to RESULTS and for current standings and raffle winners in the box below
- All the links to the full "Taking a Stand" Race Conversation video from our NENSA July 1st Instagram Live Show
- US Ski & Snowboard cross country team updates
- US Ski & Snowboard recent panel video discussion on Racial Diversity in Snowsports
- An article from Team USA on rowers Judy and Carley Geer - and the boycotted 1980 Olympics
- An Interview with Share Winter’s CEO Constance Beverley, from FasterSkier (ShareWinter.org grant funds our NENSA Nordic Rocks programing!)
- Final DAY of the UnTapped NENSA Summer giveaway! Just click on the UnTapped banner ad below for your chance to enter to win $200 in UnTapped product to fuel your next adventure!
Looking for a fun challenge for a good cause(s) this weekend? Check out
Dartmouth Skiing: Miles For Racial Justice challenge in our calendar listings at the bottom of this newsletter.
Be sure to check out the full calendar listings at the bottom of this newsletter.
I hope this finds everyone safe and well ~ and enjoying summer in your part of New England!
Best,
Amie
Amie W. Smith
Executive Director
New England Nordic Ski Association
Amie@nensa.net
781-864-0545
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NENSA News from the Field
Highlights and Notes from NENSA and the Nordic World
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NENSA COVID-19 Considerations ~
contingency planning for our events and races this coming season
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The Covid-19 pandemic poses significant challenges to NENSA’s 2020-21 winter event schedule. We are committed to hosting races and will make every effort to safely put on events in whatever form they might take. Our first objective is to ensure the health of our community in New England. Our second objective is to host our major events: Eastern Cups, Popular Races, U16 and Eastern High School Championships, the Bill Koch Festival, and Women’s Day as scheduled. To further foster excitement and an inclusive and community-centric atmosphere around skiing, NENSA will also be organizing some new fun season long challenges and goal-oriented activities.
Skiers are encouraged to limit their travel and attend events that are within their region and state.
State and regional guidelines will dictate how we conduct events. We understand that the course of this pandemic, and thus the guidelines put in place to keep us safe, might not progress linearly. While the nature of competition will remain the same, we must operate our events in a manner that ensures the safety of all athletes, volunteers, staff and the communities in which our events are held until the end of the Covid-19 pandemic. Below you will find detailed information about different contingency plans –
please note all of these outlines require that participants abide by the
New England Cross Country Promise
(NECCP) – failing to follow these guidelines may warrant removal from an event and jeopardizes our community and the entire event calendar.
Our goal is to be transparent and keep our community informed and up-to-date on our evolving thoughts and plans. Please note participation may be limited by what state and/or county you are coming from and the duration of your stay (ie. day trips vs. lodging).
Eastern Cup Contingencies:
....click
HERE
for the full story/plans
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Youth Outreach Resources
here in
New England
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The following is a list of programs and organizations operating in the East that work to mitigate barriers to entry in cross country skiing and provide children, regardless of their background, the opportunity to ski. Please read on to learn about these programs. Perhaps you know of individuals who might want to participant or you want to learn how you, your club, or your organization can get involved as a supporter or volunteer.
Please reach out to Kait Miller (
kait@nensa.net
) if there are additional organizations in the East doing similar work that we can add to this list.
...c
lick
HERE
for the full list on NENSA.net
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Final Days of the Roy-llerski
Virtual July Event
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Registration is still open for this July virtual event on
SkiReg.com
~ it's not too late to enter and complete one of the 6 categories in the virtual challenge!
There are many participation categories in this event that can be done on rollersks, or even running, biking or hiking! Check out all the category options and register
here
.
In addition to celebrating Roy and supporting Maine Outdoor Wellness Center, you will also be in the mix for some sweet prizes from
Skida
,
UnTapped
, and
Sidas
.
All registrants get 30% off the
Sidas website
(code emailed on 7/31) and are entered into a raffle upon submitting event data
here
.
Get out there and have fun #forRoy!
Click
HERE
for current RESULTS and to view our weekly raffle prize winners!
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Taking a Stand Toward Making a Difference
Insta Live "Race Conversation" in eight short segments on NENSA's YouTube Channel
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On July 1st, NENSA hosted a conversation on Race, with three NENSA athletes ~ Bill Harmeyer (UVM Ski Team alum/SMST2 skier), Linden Niedeck (CSU juniors Team) and Akeo Maifeld-Carucci (Craftsbury GRP/Harvard Ski Team alum) This hour long conversation has been edited into 8 short sessions ~ We hope you enjoy this important conversation.
As part of our Virtual Programming this Spring and Summer we have been hosting discussions for members of our community. On July 1st, we invited three athletes to come together and discuss Race, Ethnicity, Privilege and Racing.
Three New England Athletes discuss what brought them here to our discussion.
We talk about what is happening with our clubs, and Team mates.
We discuss important definitions that come up as part of this discussion.
Bill Harmeyer asks Akeo Maifeld-Carucci: How do we best influence society as Athletes? We discuss important definitions that come up as part of this discussion.
We discuss the word "Nordic" what it means to us, and the connotations it carries in our current environment.
What steps is NENSA taking to make the sport more diverse and inclusive?
What skiing wisdom do you have for younger skiers?
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Davis U.S. Cross Country Team Trains Apart, While Mixing It Up Together: Jun 27, 2020
For cross country athletes, summer is the time to build base fitness and enjoy the opportunity to add new elements to their training regimes. It’s also the time for camps and getting to know your new teammates. But, unfortunately, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, this summer has been anything but normal.
The athletes of the Davis U.S. Cross Country Team have yet to get together as a team in a training camp setting. However, having the opportunity to train with their club programs or in small groups has provided a sense of stability and competition as they push each other throughout the summer.
“Obviously, we're living in a weird time right now,” said 2018 Olympic gold medallist Jessie Diggins following a workout with her Stratton Mountain School Elite Team teammates recently. “It's been hard to make plans, and we can't really count on camps happening, but I feel so fortunate to be part of this training group because I feel like we have a very solid group of individuals who are really committed to each other and everyone brings so many cool strengths to table.”
Between the mountain trail runs, rollerski sessions and gym workouts, the Stratton Mountain School crew have also ventured into new training territory too
...READ FULL STORY HERE
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Sophie Caldwell Hamilton and Jessie Diggins participate in classic rollerski sprint session recently in Peru, Vt. They are among the members of the Davis U.S. Cross Country Team athletes training with their club programs this summer. (U.S. Ski & Snowboard - Tom Horrocks)
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Watch: Discussing Racial Diversity In Snowsports
On Wednesday, July 15, Henri Rivers, CEO, President and Founder of Drumriver Consultants and President of the National Brotherhood of Skiers hosted a virtual panel “Discussing Racial Diversity in Snowsports,” which brought industry leaders and participants together for a frank conversation about the current landscape of racial diversity in our industry and to begin to talk through ways U.S. Ski & Snowboard can create a more inclusive community. Watch below.
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FORTY YEARS LATER, SISTERS JUDY & CARLIE GEER REFLECT ON LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE 1980 OLYMPIC BOYCOTT
From Team USA: By Peggy Shinn | July 19, 2020
Forty years ago, Judy and Carlie Geer should have been walking into the Opening Ceremony at the Olympic Games Moscow 1980—the first sisters to ever row together in a double scull for Team USA.
It would have been the second Olympiad for Judy, the first for Carlie, who had never even seen crew until she had begged for time off from her camp counselor job so she could watch Judy compete in the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. In those Games, Judy had rowed in the coxed four, finishing sixth, and Carlie—wanting to keep up with her big sister—said to their dad, “I’m going to row in the next Olympics with Judy.”
Instead, they stayed home. They did not know at the time that they would stick with competitive rowing through the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, where Carlie would win a silver medal in the single sculls.
..READ FULL ARTICLE HERE
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An Interview with Share Winter’s CEO Constance Beverley
BY JASON ALBERT | JULY 28, 2020
FasterSkier interviewed Constance Beverley, the CEO of Share Winter, last week. Share Winter is a non-profit focused solely on providing access to snowsports to a more diverse community of children. As Beverley states in the interview, the primary goal is to share winter. Beverley was part of U.S. Ski and Snowboard’s virtual panel: “Discussing Racial Diversity In Snowsports”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
FasterSkier: Can you tell me a bit about Share Winter and its origins in the ski community?
Constance Beverley: The organization itself and understanding its roots is pretty critical to the conversation. Share Winter was originally called the National Winter Sports Education Foundation or NWSEF, and you’ll notice that nomenclature based on other ski team stuff, everything is “ski team education foundation”.
The idea was to create an organization that was able to find and provide resources and services to build a collaboration point amongst people learning to ski and snowboard because there was not a youth outreach organization that spanned all three sports and that provides funding and resources etc
...READ FULL INTERVIEW HERE
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NENSA Community supporting BLM
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NENSA's new Youth & Introductory Program Director Kait Miller is selling one of her prints
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NENSA's outgoing Youth & Introductory Program Director Tom Weir is selling some of his new music ~
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How many of you knew Tom's hidden talent?? Well here it is: Tom Weir has released four new songs with his band Old Moon, with all proceeds going to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and National Bailout.
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Upcoming Events
A Look Ahead at the NENSA Calendar
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Full NENSA.net Calendar Listing
HERE
Link to our NENSA Virtual Resources Page
HERE
Link to our NENSA BLM Resources Page
HERE
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New England Nordic Ski Association (NENSA)
49 Pineland Drive, Suite 301A
New Gloucester, ME 04260
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