The famous saying, "never argue with someone who buys ink by the barrel and paper by the ton," essentially means that it is a good thing to have the media on your side.
That is exactly what the Whitecourt Trailblazers did on February 1st when they hosted their fifth annual VIP and media ride. A total of 90 people participated in the event, including 50 club members, the mayor of Whitecourt, local MPs and MLAs, local radio stations, tourism, government officials, print media and Global TV.
A successful day
Dan Guenette, the vice-president of the Whitecourt Trailblazers, said that the day was a complete success. Club members and local dealerships loaned out sleds to those that were without, and second-hand—though perfectly acceptable—helmets, jackets, boots, snow pants, scarves and goggles were also loaned out to make sure everyone stayed toasty warm.
Guenette said the club members took the VIPs and members of the media on a ride through groomed, tree-laden trail systems. The day was perfect and the weather was better than they could have asked for.
“We have a new staging area called the Groat Creek staging area, and we took off from there and went to Summit Cabin,” said Guenette. "It was about a 16-kilometre ride . . . and we had a ceremony. We opened up a new trail called the Manweiler Trail and had a ribbon-cutting and roasted hot dogs."
Feeling is believing
Guenette said the purpose of the ride was to show others the wonder of snowmobiling.
“You can tell people what sledding is like until you're blue in the face,” said Guenette, “but you give someone the experience that we (have) every day, and the light turns on. We like to say in our club that there are two types of people in Alberta—snowmobilers and those who haven’t been yet. So we take those people and turn them into snowmobilers.”
