News
Winter Park pushes forward with lodge
Scott Wagar
10/16/2012
Annie’s House at the Bottineau Winter Park is moving forward with the dedication of volunteers, but as winter starts its journey to the Turtle Mountains the winter park is looking for more volunteers to complete the project if they can by the Christmas season.
“Right now, we are at 50 to 60 percent where the building is completed and finished,” said Brad Knudson, director of the Bottineau Winter Park. “To the point of opening it up, I would say we are 80 percent complete.
“To open up, walls do not have to be painted inside,” Knudson added. “We may not have the siding on the outside of the building this year, and it may not be the most attractive looking from the roof down, but we are close to being operational in the building.”
Since Labor Day weekend when the New York Says Thank You organization was here to raise the walls of Annie’s House, a core group of nine men have been volunteering their time to the project, coming almost each and every day to the site to keep Annie’s House moving forward.
The group of men, Ron Deraas, Dan Fett, Cedric Jacobson, Dick Kornkven, Larry Marchus, Dwight Olson, Dale Simon, Jerry Soland and the oldest man of the group, Lloyd Larshus, who at 87 years old comes to the winter park around every third day to hammer nails for Ann Nicole Nelson, the young woman from Stanley who lost her life in the 9-11 attacks in NYC, and for whom the new ski lodge is named after.
Even though there is a core group of men working on the project, Knudson said that they are looking for more volunteers to get the project completed.
“These guys are doing a great job, but with a building this size we are looking for as many individuals or groups who are willing to come up and help,” Knudson said. “We always have nails to nail. There is clean up behind the carpenters. Painters are needed because the time for painting is coming soon and we have to start laying sheetrock on some of the walls.”
Individuals or groups who wish to volunteer their time, should contact Diane Olson at the Bottineau Economic Development Office (228-3922) with their intentions of volunteering.
“We do not worry so much about individuals showing up, we can always find something for them to do,” Knudson said. “But if groups want to volunteer, we would like for them to contact Diane so we will have things prepared for them to do when they come.”
Individuals or groups can also go to www.skibwp.com/ to volunteer to work on Annie’s House. Once on the website, go to the top right hand side of the page to Jobs at BWP and click on the link. The link will take you to the page where, on the right hand side, it shows volunteer positions for the Annie House Project.
Presently at Annie’s House, the roof is being shingled, the windows will be coming this week to the site and the cement work should be completed in the near future.
The winter park is also looking for individuals, churches or groups who would be willing to donate hot, noon meals to the volunteers. To date, numbers of people have brought up a noon meal to the workers, which the workers really appreciate.
“We cannot thank the community enough for feeding our volunteers,” Knudson said. “Every day since we started this project on Labor Day weekend they have provided us with a hot dinner.”
Individuals, interested in preparing a hot noon meal, are being asked to contact Olson at the EDC so she can place it in the schedule.
Once winter comes, and the winter park opens, construction work will continue on Annie’s House during the hours the park is closed. Outside of construction volunteers, other types of volunteers will be needed.
“Being an adaptive center there is a need for volunteers on a daily basis,” Knudson said. “We would like to see help with the skiers’ adaptive program, along with hosts inside the ski lodge.
“The building is huge, too, and now holds all the departments of the winter park. There is the rental shop, food counter, ski patrol, offices, numerous bathrooms and we would like to see hosts, somebody who volunteers to assist people in giving them directions or answering questions.”
Annie’s House is going to be a fully adaptive ski lodge, which is being constructed in a manner so that it will be able to assist the mentally and physically handicapped.