Ski Museum Awards Grants to Three Groups

New England Disabled Sports, Damon O’Neal Scholarship and Pulaski Middle School

Franconia Notch, NH  March 12, 2010 – The New England Ski Museum is pleased to announce that Cal Conniff grant awards totaling $2,500 were made to three organizations at the Hannes Schneider Meister Cup Race at Mount Cranmore Resort on March 5, 2010. This marks the 10^th year that the Ski Museum, with a mission of preserving the history of skiing, has designated a portion of the Hannes Schneider Race proceeds to the grant program.

New England Disabled Sports of Lincoln, NH was awarded $1000 to support the development of a website for the National Disabled Ski Hall of Fame (NDSHF), which is now housed in its Lincoln location. Originally located in Colorado, the NDSF dates from 1995. The planned webpage will showcase content on the history of disabled skiing, photos and biographies of the NDSHF inductees, and a virtual tour of the physical exhibit in Lincoln. 

The Pulaski Middle School Ski and Snowboarding Club of New Britain, CT will be the recipient of $700 to assist with an annual club trip to Smuggler’s Notch in VT. “Culturally, sporting activities involving snow are not typical in our students’ experiences,” noted advisor Joseph Body. “We at Pulaski support and value our students who are willing to explore the world outside their neighborhoods despite financial obstacles.  We expose out students from the 6^th grade onward to the idea of college attendance. They begin thinking of themselves as college material.  Pulaski’s Ski & Snowboarding Club is an extension of that belief – if students know what is out there in the world and available to them, they will strive for it.”

The Damon O’Neal Scholarship Committee is in the process of raising $50,000 to endow a scholarship for Kennett High School of Conway, NH in memory of the promising ski racer who died in a tragic training accident in 1959. Damon O’Neal was by all accounts an outstanding high school ski racer, and many observers predicted a bright career in ski competition for him. The tragedy that took his life at Sugarloaf, ME at the USEASA Junior Ski Championships left the local community shaken and saddened. The Damon O’Neal Scholarship Committee will receive $800 from the Cal Conniff Grant Program.