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Updated July 3, 2008
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario's premier cross country ski club with programs, lessons, and races that cater to all ages and abilities; located in the beautiful Hiawatha Highlands.

Soo Finnish Nordic Ski Club gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, an agency of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Recreation. The Foundation receives annually $100 million in government funding generated through Ontario's charity casino initiative. It provides grants to eligible charitable and not-for-profit organizations in the arts, culture, sports, recreation, environment and social service sectors.

Contact Information

E-mail contactus@soofinnishnordic.com

Soo Finnish Nordic Ski Club
P.O. Box 21067
Zeller’s Postal Outlet
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
P6B 6H3

FAX (705) 945-7577

Ski Club Plans Feasibility Study For A New Day Lodge
July 3, 2008 - By Jim Mihell
In accordance with the resolution made at the May meeting, we’re actively making progress towards a new day lodge. At this point, we’re on the verge of submitting an application for a Local Initiatives Fund Grant to perform a feasibility study. That feasibility study will have in scope the following:

  • Identify key features of the day lodge, including:
    • Finalize site selection;
    • Size and function of required space;
    • Site planning;
    • Identify the key parties for executing the design and construction (e.g., users, architect, green consultant, constructors, cost consultant, energy modeler, commissioning agent)
    • Define physical plant infrastructure requirements based on design and operational goals (“green” building design, functional requirements);
    • Establish the basis for coordinating the design elements and design requirements of the various key parties (“Design Sharette?”)
    • Generate preliminary design based on the results of the size and space allocation study as well as the goals of exploiting concepts of energy efficiency and renewable energy sources;
  • Provide detailed estimates of construction and long-term operating costs
  • Identify potential partners and/or tenants (especially during off-ski-season months) to maximize the utilization of the facility and to help cover capital infrastructure and operating costs;
  • Identify potential sources of public and private sector funding
    • Ontario Power Generation Grant for Energy Modeling;
    • Ontario’s Standard Offer Program for solar-generated electrical power
    • Local, Provincial and Federal Grants

We’re hoping to initiate the feasibility study by the end of this summer so that we can be ready for construction in Spring of 2009.

The new day lodge will be designed first and foremost to meet the needs of cross-country skiers, although as noted above, we’ll be looking to identify any other partners, users, and/or tenants to maximize the utilization of the facility and to help cover capital infrastructure and operating costs. Currently, we’re anticipating that the day lodge will be located on land owned by SFNSC – specifically, on the tennis courts.

At this time, we’d like to notify our membership and other interested parties of this initiative so that people can get started thinking about the idea. We’re specifically interested in hearing from anybody who would like to be actively involved in this exciting project. A project such as this is large in terms of scope and capital outlay for a club such as ours. Therefore, in order to get this project underway and completed on time and on budget, we’ll need to be turning to our membership base as well as other interested parties to assist in mitigating costs. Surely there are people with relevant skills and experience involved in building design, construction, building trades or project management who might be interested in getting involved. If so, we’d love to hear from them. A simple note detailing your skills and/or area of interest / desired level of involvement sent to contactus@soofinnishnordic.com would be much appreciated. Your input will be used to help us generate a project plan during this important feasibility study phase.

Summer Ski Projects

With the ski season drawing to a close, cross country skiers will have more time to pursue other interests. Why not make that ski waxing bench you were always thinking about? How about building a rack to store your skis in your basement or garage. Even better, why not share your ideas and completed projects with others? Send plans and photos to contactus@soofinnishnordic.com and we'll post them on this web site.

The back of this ski chair is made with wooden skis that we picked up at the ski swap and yard sales. Follow the link for plans and instructions on how to build a ski chair.

Haywood Ski Nationals - Whistler, B.C.

Soo Finnish Nordic ski racer Andrew Barbeau recently competed at the Haywood Ski Nationals at Whistler Olympic Park in Whistler, B.C. Andrew is pictured above with his coaching and support crew, Adam, Amanda and Paul.

The events took place between March 16 - 23, 2008. Results can be found at Zone4.

Biathlon 2008

Biathlon is a winter sport combining two competitive activities, freestyle technique cross country skiing and small bore rifle marksmanship. Sault Ste. Marie competitors had another great season.

Silver Medal for the 2310 Cadet Relay Team - SooNews.ca - March 12, 2008

For more information on biathlon, visit the Biathlon Canada web-site.

Soo Finnish Nordic is a member of Biathlon Ontario.

More Photos...

Special Olympians Capture Medals at National Winter Games

The Soo's four Special Olympians returned home with cross country medals. The Canadian Championships were held at Mont Ste. Anne, Quebec.

Rachelle Barbeau and Jared Macmichael secured gold medals in the 5 km race while Matt Macmichael won a gold and Brendan Peters a silver medal in the 2.5 km event.

Rachelle Barbeau and Jared Macmichael won silvers in the 1 km while Matt Machmichael won a bronze medal.

More photos

Join the Club
2007 - 2008 membership forms in Adobe format
Club Membership Form and Registration for Youth Programs
Print, complete and mail.

The following is just a sampling of the benefits of being a member of the Soo Finnish Nordic Ski Club.

  • Great youth programs: Jackrabbits, Challenge, Race Team
  • Support of national athletes
  • Reduced fees for club events
  • Free waxing workshops and lessons
  • Meet other active people and have fun!
  • Access to clubhouse waxing forms on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6:30 to 7:30 and on Saturday mornings from 10 to noon. To access the waxing forms at other times, a key may be borrowed from the Hiawatha Highlands office.