Ski for Light, Inc

12/28/2025

Will you be attending SFL 2026 in Granby? If so, did you receive an email message (or two!) from Julie Coppens in the past week with information on this year's SFL Event T-shirts? We've been experiencing some technical issues with our email distribution list and worry that some attendees might not be receiving important event-related info like this. You can help us out by replying below and letting us know, if you are signed up to join us at Snow Mountain Ranch, whether or not you saw that T-shirt ordering alert in your email. TIA!

We're switching to a local Colorado company for this year's shirts, which will help us deliver a top-quality product for less; but it also means we unfortunately can't offer home-shipping for folks who won't be with us in Granby but who would still like to buy a shirt. If that's you, you'll want to reach out to a friend who will be attending and arrange home delivery with them... and then yes, you're welcome to order a shirt.

Deadline for all shirt orders and payments is Tuesday, Jan. 6. More details and order/payment links will be shared in the comments. Thanks again for your help and support!

12/22/2025

It's official: Meet "Charlie"!

Thanks to Karen Wood for suggesting the perfect name for our SFL 2026 Event mascot. By near-unanimous vote of the Event Planning Committee, this very special fox will be named for our dear friend and blind skiing legend Charlie Wirth (1921-2024).

Here's a link to the Summer 2025 SFL Bulletin, with some wonderful recollections of Charlie and all he meant to Ski for Light. https://www.sfl.org/bulletin-save/sflb25b.html

Presenting 🥁🥁🥁

Our official Ski for Light 2026 International Event logo ... and the inspo!

Back in 2023, during our last Granby event, veteran guide Tim Byas snapped this gorgeous photo of a young red fox hanging out in the snow around Indian Peaks Lodge at Snow Mountain Ranch - YMCA of the Rockies. We've been waiting to introduce this year's adorable mascot ever since! Our friend Melissa Heckel of Branch Creative Co. made the fox the star of her 2026 event logo, designed in cool shades of blue and white with a septagonal frame, spruce tree and icicle accents.

Thriving in all kinds of environments across the Northern Hemisphere, red foxes are intelligent, adaptable, agile, playful, and resourceful--just like all of us at Ski for Light.

Now all this fox needs is a name. Drop your most clever suggestions in the comments, and you might win some snazzy Ski for Light swag!

12/02/2025

“My first SFL event was truly life-changing. If one were to look at me from the outside/physical aspect, the difference would not be evident; however, the (new) mindset is something I carry daily. I feel more independent and now have confidence to travel and embrace outdoor winter sport!”

- Christine Jodoin, first-time visually impaired participant from Lansing, Michigan, pictured here at the start of the 2026 SFL Race/Rally at Soldier Hollow Nordic Center with guide Marita Johanson

❄️❄️❄️

When you're an all-volunteer organization, it's "Giving Day" 24/7, 365 -- for 50 years now, we've been blessed to have the most giving community around, running our events and supporting our efforts. But since it's for the rest of the world, we'll go ahead and humbly ask everybody to remember Ski for Light in this season of charity. We're a 501(c)3, so your gifts are tax-deductible and tax-free (if you're naming us as a beneficiary, say, for an IRA distribution); every dollar fuels our mission, keeps us skiing, and changes lives. Donation link in the comments... and for those on our mailing list, watch for our Fall Appeal letter, with all the different ways to give. Heartfelt thanks!

11/16/2025

We had the honor today of sharing the Ski for Light story with members of the Sons of Norway Edvard Grieg Lodge 5-657 in southwestern Ohio. Cincinnati-based SFLers Julie Coppens, Deborah Kendrick, and Geri Feigelson were joined by our Norwegian friend Reidar Storvik, longtime chief of race for Foreningen Ridderrennet, who's on a U.S. visit this month. Thanks to Pam Nelson for reaching out with the invitation, and to everyone at the Lodge for the warm welcome (and so many great questions)! In addition to the members pictured here, at the new Midpointe Library in Liberty, a number of others Zoomed in.

Would your Sons of Norway lodge, Lions Clubs International local club, Delta Gamma Fraternity chapter or other fraternal/service organization be interested in hosting SFL visitors at a future meeting? We put on a good show! Reach out, and we'll try to connect you with SFL participants and volunteers in your area.

10/21/2025

We had a spectacular SFL Planning Weekend at Snow Mountain Ranch! SFL 2026 event chair David Fisichella, vice chair Melinda Hollands, and planning team members Krista Erickson, Peggy Malloy, Lucas Rice, Tim McCorcle, Karen Ishibashi, Julie Coppens, Judy Dixon, Deni Elliott, Bonny O'Day, Bob Hartt, Lillian Goodman and Nino Pacini, plus others phoning in from afar, met with YMCA of the Rockies staff -- including Snow Mountain Ranch Nordic Center director Jeff Paulson, pictured here outside the beautiful new Camper Hub building, which will be our skiing home base and lunchroom for the week. We enjoyed some excellent meals in the Commons (new food service team since our last visit: chef's kiss) and explored some new trails (imagine them covered in snow and impeccably groomed for classic skiing), while revisiting favorite sites like Columbine Point and the Indian Peaks fireplace. We also checked out the Kiva (a Pueblo word meaning "gathering place"), SMR's indoor rec center with roller rink, archery range, climbing wall, basketball court and more -- where we'll all get to play on Tuesday night of Ski for Light week. Still lots of details to sort, decisions to make, and work to do, but we are getting there! Big thanks to all the volunteer leaders who spent the weekend making sure SFL 2026, Feb. 1-8, will be one of our best. And just to be super-sure, Melinda wrote a letter to place in God's Mailbox: "Dear God, Thank you for your beautiful world, and please send lots of snow this winter."

p.s. We could still use a few more guides! And we still have stipends available to help offset the cost for volunteers to attend. Link in the comments for details and registration form.

10/15/2025

We are now officially famous Down Under! Thanks heaps to Vision Australia Vision Australia Radio for featuring SFL on their excellent Studio 1 podcast, with host Lizzie Eastham talking with visually impaired skier Anthony Nelson and SFL President Julie Coppens. Cheers also to Lily Piccolo, our first-ever Aussie participant (SFL 2025 in Provo), for putting us in touch -- you're like a one-woman PR squad for an entire hemisphere!

"If you've never made anyone cry, you will have about 300 people just crying their eyes out because of the joy of watching a brand new skier come in, in one week's time, which is very short, and finish a race. It's overwhelming because you get to see those new skiers... and it is a riot to watch them come across the (finish) line." - Anthony Nelson

Episode link in the comments.

09/27/2025

Presenting 🥁🥁🥁

Our official Ski for Light 2026 International Event logo ... and the inspo!

Back in 2023, during our last Granby event, veteran guide Tim Byas snapped this gorgeous photo of a young red fox hanging out in the snow around Indian Peaks Lodge at Snow Mountain Ranch - YMCA of the Rockies. We've been waiting to introduce this year's adorable mascot ever since! Our friend Melissa Heckel of Branch Creative Co. made the fox the star of her 2026 event logo, designed in cool shades of blue and white with a septagonal frame, spruce tree and icicle accents.

Thriving in all kinds of environments across the Northern Hemisphere, red foxes are intelligent, adaptable, agile, playful, and resourceful--just like all of us at Ski for Light.

Now all this fox needs is a name. Drop your most clever suggestions in the comments, and you might win some snazzy Ski for Light swag!

09/24/2025

FIRST FLAKE ALERT! CBS Colorado reports that Winter Park (near Granby, site of our 51st SFL International Event in February) saw seven inches of snow today. Mostly just raining now, across the region, but we're taking this early-season snowfall as a very good sign.

Have you submitted your application yet to join us as a volunteer guide, worker bee, or visually/mobility-impaired participant? We are still several dozen guides short of our goal, and the deadline is just a week away. Application link in the comments; share with your XC-skiing friends and help us recruit a few more!

Conditions were wet on Tuesday in the mountains in Colorado. For video licensing inquiries, contact: licensing@veritone.com

08/26/2025

It wasn't a great year for snow in the Upper Midwest, but 2024 was a good one for us -- and you can read all about it in our latest SFL Annual Report, Happy Hodag Edition. Link to the full digital version in the comments; print copies will be going out in the mail soon to our many generous supporters and volunteers. Help us make the most of this important yearly publication by sharing it with friends, family and colleagues who might be moved to join our mission of "Skiing, Sharing, Learning."

Photo description: SFL 2024 Annual Report Cover features a cute shot of visually impaired skier Michelle Yoo and her guide Anne Dobbins in the North Woods of Rhinelander, Wisconsin, both wearing big yellow "cheesehead" hats, with our grinning Hodag mascot standing between them, monster hands wrapped around the ladies' shoulders. Inside, the photos (all captioned with subjects identified) capture the many on- and off-snow adventures that made the year so memorable.

08/15/2025

Let the stampede begin! Applications for SFL's 51st International Event in Granby, Colorado, Feb. 1-8, 2026, are now LIVE on our website, linked in the comments.

Once again we'll be skiing at Snow Mountain Ranch Nordic Center, staying in the comfy lodges and enjoying meals at YMCA of the Rockies-Snow Mountain Ranch. If you'd like to join us as a visually or mobility-impaired participant, guide, worker bee, or guest, ski on over to our Event page and please review all the information carefully before completing your application. We especially need GUIDES to get their applications in sooner than later, to speed the acceptance process--and as always, we need everyone's help recruiting new volunteers and participants to join the SFL family. So, spread the word! And start thinking "snow."

Photo from SFL 2024 in Rhinelander, Wisc. RASTA (Rhinelander Area Silent Trails Association) showing blind skier Michelle Yoo and her "Cheesehead" Mini-Giant Ski team racing down the short course with Dede Chinlund running alongside.

08/10/2025

We were saddened to learn of the passing of longtime Ski for Light instructor-guide and volunteer leader Gordon Larson in Spokane, Washington, in June. He was 85 years old.

From the obituary, newly published and linked in the comments: "During four decades of volunteer service to Ski for Light, as a cross-country skiing guide for adults with visual impairments, Gordon received the President's Award (the organization's highest honor), along with the love and respect of hundreds of participants. SFL President Julie Coppens called him, "my wise, patient SFL uncle: always there, always encouraging, quietly showing others the way. He will be greatly missed."

A celebration of Gordon's life will be held Saturday, September 20, at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Spokane.
In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be sent to Ski for Light, or to Spokane Valley Summer Theatre (SVST.org), or to UUCS.org.

Photos show Gordon with visually impaired skier Tiffany Jessen at SFL 2016, and with his wife Jean Larson (another exceptional Ski for Light guide, along with their son Patrick) at SFL 2019 in Granby, when the couple were honored with embroidered fleece jackets for their many years of service. From our Ski for Light family to all of Gordon's loved ones, we send sympathy and gratitude for all he gave to SFL.

03/31/2025

Greetings from Norway, where the 2025 Ridderrenn is off to a beautiful, sunny start! Members of our official Ridderrenn team — visually impaired skiers Karen Burke, Susan Bueti-Hill, Audrey Farnum, and Lillian Goodman, along with guides Karen Ishibashi, Lynee Forsyth, Ted Ellickson, and Julie Coppens — plus sixteen SFL friends who joined this year’s trip, organized by Marion Elmquist, had a blast skiing Monday, despite low-snow conditions and some necessary trail adjustments. Lots more to come!