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FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. – The Whiskey Jack Nordic Ski Club recently got a large donation from NorthRiver Midstream and Bear Mountain Nordic Ski Association in a rather unusual fashion.
By un-welding and selling scrap support pipe that was sitting in the yard at NorthRiver Midstream, the company was able to donate $2,000 to the club.
Day Lodge Project Manager Eliza Stanford says the generous donation was completely out of the blue.
“They had a lot of extra support pipe in their yard, and they hired Pat O’Reilly with Bear Mountain Nordic Ski Club and another guy to basically un-weld the pipes and get rid of it,” said Stanford. “They did all this work, weeks and weeks of work, but they decided to collectively give us a donation because it’s happening in our area.”
Pat O’Reilly is one of the founders of the Bear Mountain Nordic Ski Association, and he says the project originated from a safety evaluation done by NorthRiver Midstream and the need for drainage pipe at Bear Mountain.
“There’s a pipeline that goes past our ski trails, and they were doing their safety program,” said O’Reilly.
“The person who was doing the safety program reached out, and I asked if they had any pipe laying around. She said she’d make some calls. NorthRiver called me and said they had a truckload of pipe, and they needed some pipe racks taken apart, so I said I’d take that pipe too.”
Since the pipe came from Fort St. John, O’Reilly said it made sense to help out the Whiskey Jack Nordic Ski Club.
“We made a good dollar at it, and we ended up with lots of pipe to do a drainage project on our ski trails. Because it came from NorthRiver Midstream in Fort St. John, we thought that we should leave some money in Fort St. John.”
O’Reilly says his ski association has gotten a ton of help from companies in the area in its 31-year existence.
“I’d hate to even start mentioning the people who have helped us out because I lose track. Over the years, we’ve received a lot of help.”
At Whiskey Jack Nordic Ski Club, Stanford says the Day Lodge construction continues. She expects it to start taking shape in December when the panel walls and windows start to arrive.
“Once the walls and roof go up, it’ll start to get real. I think the wall panels are coming at the end of the month, and the windows will come in December.”
Stanford says the annual loppet will be held sometime in February, and she expects it to look similar to last year’s virtual loppet.
“We’ll have a loppet in February, but we’ll probably do it virtually like we did last year. We’ll give people one week to do a marked course, they submit their times and we’ll have it all set up. People can ski on their own time when it’s convenient to them, and then there are no restrictions as to who can sign up.”
For more information, visit the Whiskey Jack Nordic Ski Club on Facebook.
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