2024 Penguin Paddle
2024 Penguin Paddle
Slip-Sliding Event Returns to Holiday Valley to Benefit Adaptive Ski Program
Photos / Holiday Valley
For over 35 years, the Bill Lounsbury Adaptive Ski Program has been providing adaptive skiing lessons to individuals of all ages, and Program Director Sue Whistler invites everyone to be a part of this great mission through the 2024 Penguin Paddle! On Saturday, February 24th, all are invited to the slope side of the Yodeler lodge at Holiday Valley Ski Resort for a fun day of sliding, food, music, prizes, and more! This event is the program’s main fundraising event of the year, and it’s easy to see why it’s become an annual tradition for the hundreds of people who participate every year.
Whistler explained that the program was named after Bill Lounsbury, who was a ski patroller at Holiday Valley in the 1970s and early 1980s. “He lost a leg to cancer,” she explained. “He taught himself to ski on one ski and continued to ski. He eventually passed away from cancer, and the program was started in his memory. It’s supported by Holiday Valley and the ski patrol, who started donating equipment to the program, and it just evolved!”
During 1988, the founding year of the program, there were four instructors, 14 students, and 32 lessons taught. Now, there are more than 40 volunteer instructors, many of whom are certified by the Professional Ski Instructors of America, who teach over 250 lessons over the course of a ski season. The Penguin Paddle raises money to purchase and maintain specially designed adaptive ski equipment and to fund the ongoing adaptive training programs for the volunteer instructors.
The Penguin Paddle kicks off at 10:00am on Saturday, when registration opens for the Penguin Races at the base of Yodeler. For a $1 donation, participants will receive their garbage bag, which they wear (along with a helmet) for the races that begin at 1:00pm. Races are divided into age groups, starting with ages four to six through adults 21 and over. Whistler said, “We start serving lunch at 11:30am for $8. It’s an outdoor cookout with hot dogs and sausages, plus there is a beer and wine tent.”
Raffle tickets are on sale now from any LASP instructor and can also be purchased on the day of the event at Yodeler until the drawing at 3:00pm. Tickets are $5 each or five for $20. Prizes include a season pass from Holiday Valley, a $400 gift card to Villaggio restaurant, and a pair of skis from The City Garage (winners need not be present to win). From 10:00am-2:00pm participants can take part in the silent auction and Wine Wall. Speaking of the silent auction, Whistler said, “The gift baskets are really nice! Local merchants contributed all sorts of things. For the Wine Wall, our staff donates two bottles of nice wine each and that gets packaged up, so people can buy it and it’s kind of a surprise as to what’s inside!”
Whistler has enjoyed seeing the fundraiser grow and change over the years. “Years ago, they used to bring in penguins from Sea World in Ohio,” she noted. While the only participating penguins now are humans in garbage bags, the event is no less exciting and, most importantly, allows LASP to continue its mission of making skiing accessible to all. “Holiday Valley is wonderful,” Whistler said. “They are hugely supportive and do an awful lot to support the program, including giving us our building. We’re very appreciative.”
Learn more about the Lounsbury Adaptive Ski Program and the Penguin Paddle at www.lounsburyadaptive.org. For those who are interested in becoming a volunteer instructor or are interested in lessons, scholarships, and the disabilities LASP serves, email info@lounsburyadaptive.org.