We are well into fall and for the die-hard skiers among us the season is perhaps only a month away. CVOA is ramping up activities for the upcoming season and you will hear about some of them in this newsletter.

Please read the following item by Cindy Foster who will soon be leaving the area to be closer to family. Cindy has been deeply involved in CVOA affairs for many years and has made innumerable contributions to the scope and quality of our activities as well as establishing many of the “back-office” functions that are needed to serve our members. There are not enough words of thanks to express our appreciation for all that Cindy has done for CVOA. She will be missed for her friendship and significant involvement in the Sugarloaf area. 

CVOA officers and board will be looking for several volunteers to take over the functions performed by Cindy so please let us know as soon as possible if you have interest in any of these functions. 

We and CVOA wish Cindy the best as she begins a new adventure in her life. 

~Steve & Thom

It has been four years this month since my husband Greg passed away, and I have stayed busy with CVOA, Sugarloaf Ski Club, the CV community, friends, my little dog Ford, RV travels, and life. Now it is time to move on: it is time to move west to be near my kids and grandkids. And the process is going quickly! If all goes well, I will close soon on the purchase of a house in Greeley, Colorado, close to my daughter and her husband, and depart for Colorado around December 5th.

• Call Board/Member meetings on behalf of the officers.

• Attend Board/Member meetings.

• Take and record meeting minutes.

• Maintain contact info for board members.

• Hold historic documents for CVOA.

• Receive CVOA mail at your Carrabassett Valley mailbox and forward as needed – this could be done by someone on behalf of the Secretary.

• Receive occasional questions from the “Contact Us” page on our web site.

The secretary, or an event coordinator and/or newsletter publisher would:

• Keep a calendar of events, solicit information for the monthly newsletter

• Publish our monthly newsletter in Constant Contact (CC) – our planning tool and method of communication with members

• Send occasional CC emails about “Show N Go” events

• Send occasional CC reminder emails

• Work with Patti Johnston, Membership Secretary, to keep CC contacts current

Ski Trips Coordinator – work with ski trip leaders and Great Events to assemble a schedule of ski trips for the next year. Maintain historic records of past ski trips. Help ski trip leaders as needed.

Webmaster – monthly update to the Newsletter Page; other changes when appropriate. Manage changes to officers’ cvoa@gmail accounts

Manage Range ID Badges in May and then throughout the year.

I am forever grateful to Patti Johnston for taking on the role of Membership Secretary, which is a big and very important position.

And to Sam Hudspath, who has taken over the annual Range Groups invoicing.

Please take a moment to ask yourself “How can I help CVOA be all it can be.” If you think you’d like to join our great team of officers and directors, or have any questions at all, give me a shout by email cvoa.secretary@gmail.com or by phone (207) 829-6110. Also, you can be in touch with our president Steve Smith at cvoa.president@gmail.com or (207) 799-8254; or with our VP Thom Johnston at cvoa.vicepresident@gmail.com or (207) 852-3595.

I look forward to hearing from you, and will work with you on making the transition.

Thank you for your consideration and support of CVOA,

Cindy Foster

p.s. – on a side note, I will keep my Sugarloaf Village house for some time, and expect to be back in Maine in the summer for a visit.

At our September meeting, the attending members voted to name the CVOA shooting range the COVA Neal Trask Range in recognition of Neal’s leadership since the beginning.

When CVOA was formed in 1999, the main mission was to address issues property owners in the Valley had with recreational use of their lands. One of these issues, brought up by Neal at the first meeting of the founding members, was the use of privately owned gravel pits to sight in hunting rifles, a potential safety issue for the neighbors of the pits.

Neal worked with the Carrabassett Valley Sanitary District and the result was a long-term lease on land where the club could build a rifle range with proper berms, etc. Once the lease was signed (cost of $1 a year), Neal organized a work detail to clear an area for a road and a 100-yard rifle range. Since the first range was installed, the club has gradually added other features: 100-yard, 50-yard and 25-yard shoot ranges; a trap range; a state-of-the-art 5 stand range; an archery range; a warming hut; rest rooms and a storage building. The range has gone from an annual liability for CVOA to an income producer for the club, providing funding to support the other functions of our association.

Many, many people, and a good number of local businesses, have donated hundreds of hours of labor and thousands of dollars in materials to make this all happen. However, it was the quiet and continuous leadership of Neal Trask over the past 22 years that caused this all to come about. Those involved with the range over the years want to honor Neal not just for all the time he has put in and the monetary donations he has made, but also to recognize his leadership which resulted in one of the nicest shooting ranges in the State of Maine.

~ Peter Weston

At Homecoming, we “test drove” the idea of a CVOA ski trip to Quebec City this winter. There was a good response. Based on this, we are working with our partners at Great Events and Escapes to make this happen!

We are tentatively looking at a 4-night, 3-ski day event, staying in Old Quebec, February 7-11, 2022. As in the past, we would drive up on our own and to the ski areas.

Look for a separate announcement coming to our members later in November.

Trip Leader: Bonnie Farrar – phone: 207.735.3984

We have had a cancellation, and HAVE ROOM FOR TWO TRAVELERS. Contact Bonnie to fill this room!

Trip Leaders: Lee & Jon Goss – phone: 207-542-9361

The Aspen/Snowmass trip has filled 8 condos. We also have one condo for four people available. If you are interested, or would like to be placed on the waiting list, contact Lee and Jon.

The Big Sky trip has been filled with the maximum 36 people. If you are interested in being placed on the waiting list, contact Mike.

The CVOA Range Committee offers it congratulations to our Founder, Neal Trask, for the well-deserved honor to have our range officially renamed the CVOA Neal Trask Range. We invite you to read Pete Weston’s tribute to our friend and mentor, Neal Trask.

CVOA and the Range Committee would like to send out special thanks to the Town of Carrabassett Valley for their financial help in the creation of our new 50 yard Rifle Range. Carrabassett Valley has continually supported our efforts to make the CVOA Neal Trask Range a singularly beautiful and safe spot for shooting sports. The CVOA Neal Trask Range committee will continue its efforts to improve our Range, and greatly appreciate our town’s support of our goals.

Our Trap and 5 Stand season is coming to a close. We have decided our last Sunday Trap Shoot will be November 7th and our last 5 Stand Shoot will be the following Saturday, November 13th. After the 5 Stand Shoot we hope that some of you can stay around and help us move the clay throwers and picnic benches into the 5 Stand building for the winter. Access to the Trap Machine and voice activation system will continue to be available until the snow flies. At that time, we ask that you discontinue use of the Trap machine. The Trap Field is not plowed for the winter and the Trap machine does not do well in the extreme cold we experience at the Range.

Our Pistol and Rifle Ranges will continue to be plowed and accessible during the winter, as is the bathroom which is heated. Please remember to follow all posted rules and shoot safe.

Unfortunately, we were unable to get our Fall Range Safety Officer Training session set up for this year. Knowing how busy folks are for the winter months, we will be contacting our interested parties for a potential spring class. Thank you to those folks who contacted me to attend the training. Your commitment to our Range is greatly appreciated. I was recently in contact with one of our members who now resides in Florida, and he is using his NRA training certificate with his new range.

As many of you have seen, Stratton Lumber has provided us with a substantial amount of fill for continued Range improvements. Movement of the fill and installation of another water culvert will be delayed until spring. At that time, the new berms around the Trap Field will be modified. There will be an extension of the Archery Range with additional berms and improved parking. We are also reviewing a possible change in the gate structure to an RFID system, which will provide added security in identifying Range users and making handicap entry much easier.

Thank you all for your continued support and use of the CVOA Neal Trask Range.

Diane Stone

Range Secretary

207-240-4752

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