Author: Uxbridge Ski Club

Well we finally did it!!! We went ONE night without any trips to First Aid!!

It was an unexpected surprise to all how amazing the conditions were!!  Props to Wachusett for maintaining there trails so well.  It was definitely a lot less crowded than normal as some of the surrounding schools cancelled their ski club.  Their loss was certainly our benefit!  The kids were able to get in their last lessons of the season and one of the instructors personally came over to us to let us know how amazing his group of newbie snowboarders did!  They wrapped up their 6th lesson by riding down Smith Walton which is Wachusett’s most difficult Black Diamond Trail!!!! Keep in mind some of these kids had never been on skis or a snowboard before!  We are so proud of all of them.   Every year we watch them grow so much in our program.  Not only do they learn a new sport, they also learn so many other life skills.

Eli’s 6th/7th grade bus was full of energy this week.  If you could remind your kids the bus rules of no standing or being excessively loud that would be great!

My bus also has a good time!  The 4th graders are pretty quiet but the crew in the back of the bus are a silly bunch!  Truth or Dare was the game being played & my kid took the dare to lick the bus window!  Aside from being totally disgusting I promised him if he got sick  I would have zero sympathy!

They also could care less about the movie, Christmas Vacation, until the scene with the girl in the pool!  Lots of oooohing going on!  😂

Lost items were down this week however we still have kids forgetting their passes or jackets either at home or the bus!  Lucky for them we are usually able to bail them out of any jam and get them going pretty quickly!  Right Gabe? LOL

It really does take a village!!

Mason was back on the mountain ripping it up after leaving last Tuesday in an Ambulance!  Way to rebound kid!  He was treated with a candy bar from one of Wachusett’s Owners, Carolyn Crowley.  She even posed for a pic with him!

We are offering a mini trial session during our week 7 trip to anyone in grades 3 and up that has wanted to see what ski club is all about.  Flyers should be getting mailed out but if you know anyone interested please forward the attached flyer to them & have them email me directly with any questions!!!  This mini session will take place Tuesday, February 25th.  The parents would need to drive their child up & meet us at Wachusett and then they will receive a discounted lift pass & rentals for that day!  Spread the Word!

Another awesome opportunity to our current group is Wachusett’s  REST – NEXT Season Pass.  Check it out on their site.  One of our members purchased it today and used our GPS Group Name: Uxbridge Ski Bums but I am pretty sure if you use our School Group Name: TUXB it will also work.

Log on to Wachusett.com & select Tickets & Passes from top header, then under tickets & seasonal passes select Rest of Season.  From there scroll down until you see Rest – Next GrouPS Bronze Season Passes.  Junior Passes (6-12) are $269 Adult (13-64) are $279.  Once you add to your cart it will ask for the WTP # & Upload Pic, skip over that.  Group Name should be TUXB for student or Uxbridge Ski Bums for anyone else.

Basically if your child plans to do ski club this year and does not currently have a season pass this is a great opportunity to purchase the season pass for next season and be able to use from Feb. 24, 2020 – end of the 2021 season.

Fact:  This season the 8 week Tuesday pass cost was $138 (Up $8 from Previous Season)  These are Wachusett’s Prices for Ski Club.  If you buy a season Pass for $269 you are spending $131 more however your child can go any night plus Monday-Friday days.  If you went up 2 extra times this year you would of paid same price as a season pass holder.  The pass is a better choice if your child will go at least 2 extra times outside of the 8 ski club days.  Definitely  worth checking out as I know from talking to your kids they LOVE Ski Club!!!!

Bronze Pass:   Weekdays Mon-Fri, except Holidays & School Breaks

All Nights (Mon-Sun)

$15 Off Weekend/Holiday Tickets

Enjoy February Break! I know many will be hitting the slopes, don’t forget Wachusett offers Tubing on Sundays from 5pm-10pm for $10/hour.  Also parents, Wachusett has a great restaurant upstairs from The Coppertop Lounge so even if you don’t ski, grab the kids and relax in the lounge or restaurant for a few hours while the kids Ski or Ride or Tube!!!

Post your pics to FaceBook Group on Ski Bums!!!

A few Pic from week 6     https://photos.app.goo.gl/WRUJM5g9p9me8mPa7

See Everyone on Tuesday the 25th!

P.S. Think Local said orders should be in during school break week.  For all that ordered gear maybe you’ll have it for week 7!!!

Shelley. Jim, & Eli

Uxbridge Ski & Snowboard Club

Hard to believe how quickly this ski season is going by & unfortunately we are continuing our trend of weekly trips to the First Aid headquarters!  I will fill you in on those in a minute.

The trip up was pretty smooth, kids enjoyed the movies and upon arrival as we always do we remind everyone to grab all their belongings and head in.  Immediately I was met by 2 students from the 6th/7th grade bus that had lost their season passes so I brought them in to customer service to grab replacement passes!  Thanks to the awesome staff at Group sales for not charging the kids for new passes!!  Remember Season Passes are the students responsibility, we only collect & pass out the 8 week passes weekly.

Next it was off to the Granite room where somebody always needs to borrow from my extra gear bag!  Thanks to 1 of our chaperones that let 1 of our older kids borrow a pair of snow pants.  Its finally quiet again, kids are at their lessons or off skiing with friends.  The temps were warm and even though we have had no snow Wachusett’s snow making has kept the mountain in great shape!

I asked the chaperones to try and get some action shots of the kids and Brian and Paul were able to get quite a few nice group pics.  Its not always easy to do but we do try our best.  Many just are off skiing and rarely come in or the chaperones don’t recognize them once they are out & all geared up.  Mary’s Mom showed up to see her and her granddaughters!  A nice surprise for them and I told the other chaperones it was because Eli wasn’t there yesterday!! Even sent him a pic of his mom and all the girls.  We all know he would of done the same if rolls were reversed!😂

5:30 injury #1 was called in.  Upon arrival I see Chris, one of our 8th graders with ice on his back and pupils that looked like junior mints!  Although he wiped out pretty hard he was able to ski down to First Aid with his friend that witnessed his fall & was able to describe the not so pretty landing to the folks in First Aid.  Luckily his Dad is a chaperone and was able to join his son and determine he was probably done for the day.  I am happy to report Chris went to school today and is feeling much better.

Back in the Granite Room it is a little louder than normal.  Many kids decided to wrap up early and socialize rather than ski or ride.  Please remind your kids how much money you spent on ski club, it was warm last night, nobody should be in except to eat dinner.  We tell the kids every week to stay out till 7:00 ish.  The buses do not leave until 7:30 & last night apparently some were trying to get out to the buses before 7:15.  They all know the drill by now, nobody goes to the bus until 7:15.  A bus chaperone must be on each of the buses 1st.

Another reminder, if you are at Wachusett and are taking your child or their friends home with you, you must sign them out yourselves on our attendance sheet.  There are 3 buses, 3 attendance sheets, and 3 different groups of bus chaperones.  This should be done prior to 7:15, heck we don’t care if you sign them out at 5pm, just make sure to sign them out and try to communicate it to the appropriate chaperone.   Only adults can sign out, also if you are taking a child that is not your own please have the parent text us and let us know.

6:30 injury #2 was reported… This 1 was a little different, one of our youngest and smallest riders wiped out and injured his head and neck.  Mason is in 4th grade , rides my bus and has really come a long way in a short time.  He loves snowboarding and has done well however this injury resulted in a snowmobile trip down the mountain, an exam in the 1st aid & ultimately an ambulance ride to Umass as a precaution.  With any neck or head injury typically Wachusett will require an ambulance ride.  This is where things became a little chaotic.  I need to let the others know I will be going to the hospital with Mason.  One chaperone is in charge of locating his bag and sneakers in the rental lodge, another needs to grab his bag off the bus.  I need another chaperone to drive my kid along with the other 3 I drive back home from UHS to my street.  On top of all this mind you today is the day I had 4 regular bus chaperones out.  They all did a fantastic job springing into action and Paul offered to meet me at UMass to get me home after, forgot that minor detail myself!  All in all it seemed all was going well until I get a phone call at 8:43 that Jim is at UHS with 2 brothers and their friend still waiting for a ride!!!  PLEASE if you are going to be late for any reason we need to be notified.  This was a 1st and hopefully a last.  Plan on arriving at the high school by 8:10, its much easier for you to wait in a warm car than for the kids and a chaperone to have to wait outside in the cold after a long afternoon of skiing.  His family was in his car and he had no extra room to even have them get in and stay warm….

I am so happy to report that Mason is fine.  He handled a scary situation and was very brave!

Too much excitement for all of us last night but I can promise you that your kids are lucky to have such a great group of chaperones looking after them!!!

Now for some funny now blunders that at the time probably weren’t so funny:

1. Eric forgetting all his gear at Wachusett probably because he was focused on being in charge of Eli’s bus in his absence.  Eric if your gonna forget anything I am glad it was gear and not a kid!!!
2. When I thought my bus left one of my bus chaperones behind!  Well they did however it was because they were searching for our chaperone bag with all the chaperone passes in it!  Between Demetria trying to text me and call me and me trying to put her words together in the dead zone leaving Wachusett it was pretty crazy!  I cannot thank her enough for taking over the 4th/5th grade bus by herself and for driving my son and the 3 neighborhood kids home!!!  You Rock!

Don’t worry Jim drove Josh home after I texted the other 2 buses to see if Josh was with them!!!  This is when having a really bad cell service makes an already stressful situation worse!  Hey at least it wasn’t a kid & he wasn’t really left behind!!!!

Next week will be week 6 and for those taking lessons it will be your last lesson!

We will be off for February vacation and back at it for week 7 on Feb. 25th  Our last day will be Tuesday March 3rd.  The kids that take lessons love the last 2 weeks.  Being able to practice what they learned and having that extra hour to ski with their friends is always so much fun.

Be sure to check out Ski Bums for some great pics & I will attach a few below as well.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/qu85xVaCogtPUvQE6

Have a nice weekend all!

See you next Tuesday!!!

Shelley, Jim, & Eli

Uxbridge Ski & Snowboard Club

This week was relatively quiet!  The mountain was in decent shape giving the lack of real snow & heavy rain on Saturday.  We did however have 1 injury that required a trip to the First Aid Building.  Poor kid was doing the right thing while Mom was getting ready to go out and ski with him. He was  attempting to put his boot bag up on  the top shelf rather than leaving it on the floor like most of them do and it fell.   As he attempted to catch the out of control falling bag it crashed into his finger sandwiching his finger between the bag & the back of a chair!  As I am witnessing this I realize trips without injury is being reset back again to zero.  I attempted to quickly run the screaming boy to the closest bathroom to run it under cold water.  As I am standing awkwardly outside the men;s room I can’t help but wonder, Is he ever coming out of there!  Finally he emerges and the finger is now purple & some strange lump is protruding from the knuckle.  Ok lets just have First Aid take a quick look & get some ice on it I say to him.

Luckily after some tears it is determined that he can bend it.  Poor kid though, It was purple and swollen & he decided he would be done for the day.  I teased him & said just tell everyone you “Crushed it at Wachusett Today”

Lost COW card & single LABELED glove made it back to Cam!  I texted his Mom to let her know that I’d put the card in the glove! Still no luck on Coop’s pants though!

Caroline’s older brother joined us this week while on winter break from Mass Maritime Academy.  He told me not much has changed from when he did ski club with Mr. Francis, I will take that as a compliment!  He was even able to produce his vintage COW card from elementary school.  I was so impressed by that there is a pic of it!  Definitely scrap book worthy considering the age of it and the fact that he still has it!!!

My own kid got off the bus without his jacket!!!  Oh and bonus his season pass was in the jacket!!!  Thanks to Greg Walsh for taking Ben down to the parked bus lot to retrieve the coat I reminded him twice to put on!!! The struggle is real!  So now both my kids have made the chronicles!  One does not even belong to our ski club!!!  Next week should be interesting when my oldest & a few of his friends drive up to ski with us!

Eli skied again with some of the littles and as always they managed to get a great group pic, some of those kids may or may not be from Uxbridge, but its a great group pic, lol!!!

We welcomed back Kason who was injured in the fall & was just cleared to ski & next week we welcome back Bryce who injured himself in December and is now cleared to return!!!  Lets all stay healthy and safe from here on out please!!!!

4 more weeks of ski club remain!  We will go February 4th & 11th then skip the 18th for school break.  Our last day is March 3rd.

Keep a close eye on your kids COW card balances, I currently gave 53 cents on my $50 card & $13.00 on my $90 cow card for my kids.  Looks like someone will be brown bagging it next week!!!

Remember this Saturday night is Midnight Madness at the Mountain.  Ski or Ride until midnight and Sledding on Sundays from 5-10pm for only $10/hour.

Wachusett also has an app now!  I installed it last week and its actually pretty good, better than their website!!  Check it out, Paul Paulino you will love it!!!😂

Only a few pics this week folks sorry!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/hQ9Gw76xKgTcu9CS8

See You Next Tuesday!!!

Shelley, Jim, & Eli

P.S. Special thanks to my bus driver that finally resolved the sound issue with the movie for the ride home from Wachusett!  Riding up watching Jaws with sub titles while the kids in unison decided to chant, “Are we there yet, are we there yet, are we there yet” Let’s just say was only cute for 2.2 seconds! 😂😂

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Uxbridge Ski & Snowboard Club