Almost 100 volunteers contributed, in ways big and small, over the past year to make the PSR such a great club. Out of that number, sixty were able to attend a dinner with presentations and entertainment at The Lion's Den in Schumacher.

President David Mader, unexpectedly had to work so Club VP Lorne Luhta gave a brief recap of the past year and introduced the directors for this year, welcoming new board members, Tory Kullas, Joanne Blood,  Ruth Roy and Larry Labelle.

Susan Kaczmarek was recognized as Outstanding Volunteer by Greg Deyne, who talked about the terrific role model Dr. Kaczmarek has been for the ski team.

Sue has been actively involved since she decided to race after helping out when we hosted the Ontario Championships in 1992.  She has been the backbone of the coaching team since 2000, organizing summer training, becoming a Level 2 coach, and still managing to race successfully herself, bringing home medals from provincial and national championships and the Keskinada World Loppet.  Sue has put in countless hours and the team had amazing success last year culminating in Natasha Kullas winning five gold medals at the National Championships.

She has enthusiastically helped with brush cutting, trail improvements and filling the woodshed.   If help was needed with giving lessons she was always available. She works at Bingo every second Monday night and stays until Stan is done.

She is on the new chalet committee and is organizing the NOD training camp to be held here in December.  Although Sue does not sit on the PSR Board she attends many Board meetings. She helped husband Stan with the Lighting project.

Greg also noted that she makes a tasty trifle!

Congratulations Sue for being an outstanding volunteer!

Gerry Perreault was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by Lorne Luhta.

Lorne asked Gerry if he wanted to help out at the club in the eighties and Gerry had noticed that the front step was rotten so he thought he could fix it. He agreed to help out. Little did he know that what he thought would be a little fix-it job would soon become a major investment of time as he became head of grooming and equipment.

Lorne spoke about Gerry's dedication to the club and his excellent organizational skills. He helped with trail widening, the wood chip project, trail brushing every fall, and all of the building projects.  He has been on the PSR Board since 1987 and manages to ski 1000 kilometres every year. He even was involved with Lorne in coaching at one point. 

Not many people know that Gerry is the person who unlocks the buildings every morning on his way to work. Gerry became involved in the Special Olympics and helped with the PSR hosting of the Winter Games.  He has been selected as an associate coach for the World Winter Special Olympics in Nagano, Japan in 2005.

Lorne spoke about the PSR garages and how they are neater than any garage he has ever been in. Gerry humbly gave the credit for that to others, stating that he is just good at making checklists.

Lorne also told about the time he and Gerry were out in the old, cold grooming machine and they got stuck in a swamp.  Gerry jumped out in water up to his waist in minus 30 degree conditions in order to get unstuck. This is what the volunteers go through so that club members can have superbly groomed trails, far beyond what anyone should expect.

The club is truly indebted to Gerry Perreault for his commitment and dedication to the sport of cross country skiing.

Entertainment

Evening entertainment was provided by the racing team parents and coaches who showed what a race is really like at other clubs. Diane Luhta prepared a skit which had the invitees laughing hilariously at the antics of the racers and the coaches.

Anyone who volunteers is invited to next year's V.A.P. All of those who help out say it is a lot of fun and that is why they do it.