Managing 1,000 women through multiple activities takes a lot of organization, planning and volunteers.
Part of the crop of volunteers for this weekend's Huntington Madeleine Thomas Memorial Women's Winter Tour met last Wednesday evening at the Traverse Area District Library to get an overview of the project and it's history. Tour founder and executive director Kaye Krapohl also described the myriad volunteer opportunities to the 17 attendees and encouraged them to sign up for one or more shifts.
"It's a lot of hard work by volunteers and I couldn't do it without you,” said Krapohl, whose first Women's Winter Tour — then called the Vasaloppet — eight years ago drew 190 skiers.
The three-day event at Crystal Mountain, a new location this year, kicks off Friday evening with an opening reception and is followed by two packed days of activities indoors and out. In addition to Sunday's main skiing and snow shoeing event, which includes a 3K, 5K and 10K routes, the tour also features a Health Expo, cross-country ski lessons and Film Festival on Saturday.
Chocolate is also a very important theme to organizers, volunteers and participants alike — Krapohl deems it the universal language of women.
The goal of the Women's Winter Tour is to raise awareness of domestic violence. Three local nonprofit organizations will benefit from the event: Madeleine's House, the Women's Resource Center and the Zonta House in Benzonia. A guaranteed $5 minimum from each registration is earmarked for the charities while other components of the weekend will also boost the donation total.
"My hope is that these events broaden the base for the shelter to draw from,” said Krapohl, who also plans to donate some funds to the VASA trail.
For Krapohl, who took the concept to the national level three years ago and has licensed four other sites for this year's event, a women's empowerment event helps empower other women in all facets of their lives.
"It really started out as a way to get women out and exercising, which will lead to healthy family choices,” she said. "My requirements for sites are that they have it on Super Bowl Sunday, donated a minimum of $5 to a local women's shelter and they have to serve chocolate.”
David Dickerson is helping Krapohl with the big picture of coordinating volunteers as well as other tasks that need doing. Inspired as a trail marshal last year to participate more this year, he noted that a close friend who experienced domestic violence motivated him to help.
"In all my time in Traverse City, I never saw an event that generated that much good will, generated that much excitement and energy,” he said of his volunteering last year. "What we're contributing to is just so awesome and so important and I'm really proud to be contributing to it.”
Many attendees at Wednesday's meeting are veterans who have been sharing their time and talents for years every Super Bowl Weekend. Trio Bill Costley, Marc Frick and Dennis Flynn, all of Traverse City, are part of a detachment of tuxedo and top hat clad men — with red cummerbunds and ties, of course — who support the skiers along the route. These course marshals give out kisses (the Hershey's kind) and encouragement after a difficult segment, thoroughly enjoying their volunteer time year after year.
"They have a ball, they like all the attention that somebody's thinking about them for a change,” said Costley of the event's participants. "It's a lot of fun and a good cause.”
Frick encouraged his wife and daughter to ski a few years ago, spurring them on with treats and now the pair look forward to skiing every year.
"It's a non-competitive, encouraging environment,” said Frick. "Making more confident young women is a big deal.”
For more information on the upcoming Huntington Madeleine Thomas Memorial Women's Winter Tour and all the events this weekend at Crystal Mountain, see their Web site at www.womenswintertour.com.