News: February/March 2021

February report

Norwich Nailed entered a second session of online cooking, this time carrying sponsorship from Pete & Gerry’s Eggs, King Arthur Baking, Norwich Farm Creamery and Cabot Coop Creamery.  We had another successful run; this time with more adults and families participating
New Nordic Trail – residents asked Norwich Recreation and UVLT if we could work together to create a winter trail system that would span from Brookmead to Parcel 5 and back again.  We worked with Allied Contracting to make this a possibility, and brought professionally groomed trails to the area.  We are splitting the grooming fees and hosting a series of events in order to fund this additional cost.

Nordic at Night – Norwich Recreation was able to use the event supplies that we procured through our MAHCC grant last year, to create a night skiing event in the newly-groomed farm fields of Brookmead. UVLT co-sponsored the events with Norwich Recreation, with all proceeds going towards the grooming services this year.  These events all sold out.
Nordic at Noon – Ford Sayre coaches, Kristin Fauci and Elissa Bradley hosted a women’s clinic at Brookmead farm fields.

Huntley Meadows – Huntley Meadows has a dedicated grooming team that has been doing a fantastic job of keeping the ski trails in good shape each week.  Ford Sayre Nordic was granted a fee exemption by the Select Board this year, and has been using the area for their 1^st&2^nd grade nordic group.

Snowshoe Hikes – we partnered with the Norwich Trails volunteers to offer both Beginner (led by Brie) and Advanced hikes of the winter trails in Norwich. While the Beginner hikes were well-attended, we did not see any traffic for the Advanced.  This was likely due to the chosen routes/duration and the icy conditions.  We will continue to seek ways to foster this partnership.
Discover Norwich Trails – Norwich Trails volunteers, with Norwich Recreation, gave a community talk for the Historical Society about how to enjoy our trails in the winter.  Norwich Recreation promoted the Tour of the Trails – Winter Edition series of events (snowshoe & nordic outings).  Norwich Recreation is also working with the Historical Society on a summer fundraiser that will replace their House & Garden Tour this year.

Our skating rink has been a huge hit this year, and in order to allow families to adhere to the SAU guidelines, we created a scheduling system that kept children in their grade-level pods, while still leaving time slots for those learning remotely or being homeschooled.
Our agreement with the Town of Thetford ends this month.  Brie is helping with their search for a new Rec Coordinator.  

We were awarded a $2,000 grant from Mascoma Bank to help offset the costs of our hiring a local business to run our summer Photography Camp. 
After calls from the community to keep the lights up on the Town Green fence, we have decided that they will remain until further notice.