It takes a village to host the Wyoming Senior Winter Games

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On Feb. 7 through Feb. 9, Pinedale hosted the Wyoming Senior Winter Games. Pinedale started the games back in 2008 and has hosted nine times since the games began.

Alpine and Nordic skiing, snowshoe racing, speed skating and hockey shoot, fat bike racing, pickleball, swimming and walking are the events that adults age 50 and older participated in for three days.

This year, there were 109 registrants from around the state of Wyoming and as far away as Houston, Texas, and Tucson, Ariz.

Our community is rich with beautiful facilities that accommodated this multifaceted event. White Pine Ski Resort welcomed the alpine skiers; the extensive system of fabulous groomed Nordic trails invited Nordic, snowshoe and fat bike activities; the Sublette County Ice Arena welcomed the skaters; and the Pinedale Aquatic Center was headquarters for registration, hospitality, pickleball, swimming, and walking. Rendezvous Pointe was the perfect location for the culminating banquet, entertainment and guest speaker.

None of this could have happened without the incredible “buy in” from the local community. It started with a dedicated team of volunteers who were the “committee.” Countless hours went into making the plan, publicizing, registering, finalizing event details, gathering supplies and more volunteers, and then welcoming participants for three non-stop days.

Then, there was the incredible group of folks who stepped up to make it happen at each and every event. These community volunteers assisted with registration and hospitality at PAC. They timed walkers and swimmers. They organized medals. They replenished the hospitality items. Some folks donned their many layers of warm clothing to stand in the extreme cold to time the outdoor events. Others stayed late after the closing banquet, after everyone else had gone home, to clean up Rendezvous Pointe. This list of valued volunteers is too numerous to list, but they know who they were. It was because of all these folks “in the trenches” that we had a very successful event.

Without a doubt, it is people working with people, asking “What can I do?” that creates a quality event. And, more importantly, it creates a quality community … one I am truly glad to be part of.