The Swain Patrol had a good year. Our snow making crew did a wonderful job giving us terrain keeping our trails open and skiable under some challenging weather conditions in the mid part of the season. We added three new patrollers this season, Hermes Fernandez, J.P. Oliver, and Mike Rech. All three have jumped right in and become real assets to the patrol, in just their first season with us. We have also had a major membership push led by Steve Walker and his membership committee with some great results. We have seven new candidates heading to the OEC class in August with several more pending applications.
On May 11th we had our annual awards banquet, held at Swain. We were joined by Kris Vasilauskas and Jeff Welch to help present the Division and National awards.
Please join me in congratulating the following patrollers on their 2018-2019 season awards, local, Divisional, and National:
Patriot Stars:
-Shannon Bielaska
-Geoff Feltner
-Paul Weitz
Service Awards:
Rebecca Ochs-5 years
Shawn Schoonover-15 years
Eric Washburn-15 years
John Werner-15 years
Keith Miller-25 years
Richard Stearns-25 years
Mike Wangler-25 years
Jim Feuerstein-30 years
Steve Shelley-30 years
Tim Cassidy-40 years
Bill Schmidtmann-50 years
Local awards presented by former Patrol Directors Jim Ebmeyer (retired), Tim Cassidy, Geoff Feltner, Marie Osypian (retired), Ted Snyder (retired), and Joe Menichino along with Dave Hanning:
Lehman Instructor of the Year, S&T- Tim Cassidy
Lehman Instructor of the Year, OEC-Cathy Rague
Stoneham Candidate of the Year-Mike Rech
Hanning Outstanding Service Award-Steve Walker Sr.
Sliding Rague- Mike Wangler
Division awards:
OEC Instructor of the Year-Glenn Gebhard
National awards:
Yellow Merit Star:
Shannon Bielaska
Joe Menichino (awarded in March)
Tom Wallin (awarded in March)
Certificate of Appreciation:
Cathy Rague for her service as APD in charge of OEC
Angel pin:
Karen Schmidtmann for long time support of the patrol through multiple generations
Distinguished Service Award:
Joe Menichino
Mike Mooney