8 | Snowmobile VERMONT VAST News Send your Snow Angel photos to editor@vtvast.org. If we use your photo, we’ll send a VAST 50th anniversary t-shirt for your angel and one for you! Rob Landoli from Hinesburg, VT takes his son, Grady, on his first snowmobile ride in Newark. (Nancy Piette photo) 9-year-old Gavin Bianchi helped with trail work for the first time this fall. His father, Scott, is a member of the Drift Dusters. By Rich Spitzer, Williston Hill Hawks President If I put the word out that we were serving free pizza during our club meetings, I think I would be eating cold pizza for a week after. I know every club is in need of volunteers young and old. I am in the most populous county with the fewest trails to maintain. I should have plenty of people to share the workload, but all I hear is “The club will do it.” The club. The State. The government. People have expectations that things will just get done by some magical force. We rely on generalizations of “the federal government” or “the state” to do things for us. But in every situation, if we want our desired results, then we’d better do it ourselves. Of course, in our snowmobiling world the group that gets mentioned the most is VAST. “VAST takes my TMA money.” “VAST better groom the trails.” “VAST will pay for bridges.” “VAST better update the grooming status of the trails.” Well, VAST is YOU! The snowmobiler. The person searching the internet for the best-groomed trails for the weekend. If you want the best- groomed trails, best signage, timely internet updates, and the best snowmobiling experience, you need to help make it happen. Attend a meeting and take on a little responsibility. If you are relying on VAST to do it, you are relying on aging, overworked volunteers who are the ones who always “do it.” When I get messages asking why the trails are not groomed, there are only two answers: 1) Not enough snow or 2) No one available to groom. I can’t make it snow, and I can’t find volunteers. If our club had more volunteers, we would have better trails and a pool of groomer operators. If my one guy who has signed all the trails, cleared most, organized all repairs, given the safety class, and is at a meeting for one of his other VAST positions – if he has time to groom the trails, I am sure he will try to get them groomed so you can ride. Please volunteer to help or at least drop off a pizza to the people who do volunteer. They deserve it. We all want to ride, have fun, and be safe! FREEPIZZA! “Our 10-year-old daughter, Jillian, loves to snowmobile. She started on a 120, and has moved up to her 340.“ –Jess Doktor