You won't believe this!
Our 14th year was a great success, but wait til you hear about the BIG deal we have in
store for our 15th year in January, 2009. EEF has submitted
the paperwork to the State of Tennessee to hold a raffle our 15th year. As soon as we get
approval around the end of March, we will post more details on how you can participate.
According to the State's guidelines, we cannot actually start selling tickets until 120
days before the event, but once we get approval, we can start promoting the raffle and
how you can participate so keep watching for more info.
This isn't just an ordinary raffle to win a TV or something cool like that. We are
planning to sell 1,000 tickets for $100 a ticket for a chance to win a MasterCraft X
Series boat! EEF is partnering with MasterCraft to make this happen, and throughout
the summer, we plan to display the boat (with some really cool Eskimo graphics wrap on
the boat) during the Patricia Neal IRC water ski clinics. So keep your eyes peeled
for details once the weather starts to warm up. 2009 will be
We finally have some pictures to show. We have over 360 pictures
online for you to view. We tried to catch as many skiers as we could, but, unfortunately,
weren't able to capture any in the 10:00 to 11:30 time frame. On the good side,
we're working on some short videos for YouTube. We'll let you know as soon as we
get some of them uploaded.
The preliminary results of the January 12, 2008 Eskimo Escapades "Shut up and Ski"
fund raising event are trickling in.
It looks like you (the skiers) raised a bit
over $18,000 for the Dream Connection and the Patricia Neal Innovative Recreation
Cooperative. We had about one hundred skiers this year.
The weather was really
perfect. It was very foggy in the early morning. The boat crews launched the boats
into a river where very little could be seen due to the fog.
I was on the river bank
and couldn't even see the boats although I could hear them muttering around in the
water. Of course, no one skied that early. It was ten AM when the first skiers
started. Things started a little bit slowly. It seemed like everyone wanted to ski
in the afternoon when they knew it would be warmer.
Temperatures started out at 31
degrees Fahrenheit, but by ten o'clock when skiers started, it had warmed up considerably.
The sun came out and burned the fog away. That sun felt good.
As soon as it rose above
the horizon, you could feel its warmth on your face. By three in the afternoon people
were running around in short-sleeved T-shirts.
The last skiers skied a little after that
and then it was time to pack everything up. Most skiers won't get another chance to
ski until next summer.
Corporate sponsors contributed around $20,000 this year and that will bring the
total donations to somewhere in the neighborhood of $38,000.
That brings the fourteen
year total for Eskimo Escapades to $320,000. That's impressive! Heartfelt thanks
go to all of the wonderful people and companies who have given their time, energy
and hard earned cash to the Dream Connection and the IRC through the Eskimo Escapades
Foundation.
Lisa and Allan Mueller
almphoto.com
took this year's pictures and they gave me a disk with
3.78 gb of photos on it.
They used some Serious Telephoto lenses, so they should get some interesting results.
I think they sent me around 7GB (Gigabytes!) of information last year. That's a bunch!
In addition to the still shots, this year we had videographer Alex Oliver
www.JaoPro.com
take videos of the skiers.
We will put some short videos of skiers on YouTube
and Alex will also create another, longer, high-quality video of the Eskimo Escapades
Event. We'll put links to them on our home page as soon as we get them.
We didn't have Peter Pan or Batman this year, but Elvis and company gave a command
performance along with several Nationally ranked skiers - among them, the
Carter girls.
Their group is called The Flying Ponytails,
a trio of young ladies who showed us how to ski.
At least one of them
is a Silver Medalist National Champion. The Flying Ponytails have skied at
Eskimo Escapades for the last four years. Kara and Zach McIntyre also did some
trick skiing. Both of them have won National medals each of the last three years.
Kara is on the National Junior Development Team.
The skill shown by all of the skiers was pretty impressive!
It was a lot of hard work, a lot of fun, and you all raised a whole lot of Cold Cash
on a Cold Day. Thanks to Everyone who particpated - Sponsors, Skiers,
Landlubber Volunteers,
and of course, don't forget the awesome Boat People. We're looking forward to seeing
you next January when, once again
we'll ask you to just
