Paris historical feature ski museum fireside chat

SOUTH PARIS - The Paris Cape Historical Society will host a Ski Museum of Maine program Thursday, November 18 at 7 p.m. at the Paris town office. The program is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

Scott Andrews, Research Director of the Kingfield-based Ski Museum, will present a Fireside Chat, a personally-narrated digital slide show that features more than 100 vintage photos. The title of the show is “Getting Organized: How local ski clubs, schools and colleges built the sport of skiing in Maine.”

The story starts in the 1920s, when outing clubs and winter sports teams became popular with high school and college students and winter carnivals proliferated in dozens of Maine cities and towns. Andrews notes that Paris High School was among the first in the state to jump on the winter sports bandwagon.

The story continues after World War II, when skiing boomed in popularity and small ski slopes - such as Nopar on Pikes Hill in Norway - proliferated all over Maine and the U.S.

Andrews adds that high school ski teams were mainstays of these local hills, and many racers helped to popularize and grow the sport by teaching beginners in the lower grades. “We will show a marvelous photo of a high school student giving a beginner lesson to a group of middle schoolers at Nopar,” says Andrews.

Many Olympic skiers from Maine got started in high school, including Leslie Bancroft of South Paris. Bancroft began cross-country skiing while a student at Oxford Hills and went directly from high school competition to the U.S. Ski Team and the Olympics of 1980 in Lake Placid and 1988 in Calgary.

The Ski Museum of Maine and the Paris Cape Historical Society invite members of the public to share photos and memories at the November 18 gathering. “People like to bring their personal and family photos and stories to these Fireside Chats, and their willingness to share their experiences adds incredible energy to the evening,” says Andrews.

For more information, call Cynthia Immonen at 743-2384.