Snowmobile Association of Massachusetts 2014 Charity Report (Marcia Miller)
Published on Tuesday, April 8, 2014 in Charity, News & Updates
Tags: charity, clubs, sam, volunteers

Members of the Snowmobile Association of Massachusetts donated over $15,000 to charities this season, of that $10,000 went to local charities! See the individual club reports at the bottom of the page.

I would like to start off by saying thank you to all the clubs who participated in charity events this year. Each year we get a little more involvement and that is wonderful to see. As we all know there are many of our neighbors who are less fortunate than us and it is so important to remember to help in any way we can.

This season we started off with our winter clothing drive. Each club was sent with a flyer to remind their members to bring gently used winter wear to the Snow Expo. Unfortunately donated clothing was much lower this year. A few coats, two pair of boots, some mittens and a whole snowmobile suit were donated.

Hopefully next year we can do better. I know we all have good quality clothing we no longer use for our kids or ourselves that would benefit someone greatly. If it is easier to collect things at a club meeting and bring it to a SAM meeting I am willing to collect things that way also.

Our next charity for the year is the Toys for Tots drive. This one is fun for everyone. Many clubs donated toys where others donated money. Both are very much appreciated. We arranged the toys around the Christmas tree at the SAM December meeting, which made for a more festive night. Hundreds of toys were collected and more than $300 cash donated.

It took six people o help carry in the bags of toys at the Oak Ridge Marine Corp breakfast where they were dropped off. They were overwhelmed with the generosity of the clubs from SAM. Thank you to all who made this happen. There were many delighted children at Christmas who maybe weren’t expecting anything under their tree. We should be very proud of our members for making this program so successful.

The last charity we focus on is Campo SnoMo. As the official charity of the Snowmobile Association of Massachusetts, we try to have all the clubs participate. A challenge was put out to each club to donate $50. Almost half of the 34 clubs accepted this challenge and a few exceeded the challenge by donating $100 and $250. As we know the money is used to send two handicapped people from MA to the camp for a week of outdoor fun.

All in all a total of $1,425 was collected, including $500 from SAM. Again, only about half the clubs participated. Is this because some clubs do not do charity work or choose to not participate in SAM charities? We fell short by a small amount but I am confident we can make it up at our Annual meeting.

SAM members donated over $15,000 to charities this year, of that $10,000 went to local charities!

As impressive as the number is, it could have been even bigger. Out of 30 clubs only 14 submitted a charity report. I guess that matches about the number that participated in our charity events. Compared to previous years the report was much simpler to fill out.

Even if your club doesn’t do charity work they must do trial work and grooming? These hours prepping the trails and then grooming them all count towards volunteer hours and that is charity work. You are not just doing it for yourselves but for others to enjoy.

If you want to estimate those hours (it does not have to be absolutely perfect) I can still include them in the report which is send to the International Snowmobile Council charity chairperson, who shares the statistics with state and national legislators.

The numbers clearly show the government that we are a community of givers, not takers. We are not just out there for our own gain but providing a service for others to enjoy the beautiful area we have in Massachusetts.

For the record, SAM members volunteered over 11,000 hours of trail work in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts this past season. But again, less than 50% of the clubs submitted reports.

My husband, Jeff Miller, our grandkids and I participated in a Christmas party that was co-sponsored by the Hilltown Snowmobile Club. It was a great night of fun with activities, cookies and drinks provided.

It also had Santa arriving on a fire engine and then handing out gifts to each child that was there. Santa did have Elf Mike (well maybe a little larger than the regular elf) helping to hand out the gifts.

Each child was given a gift and the room was crazy with kids showing their friends what Santa gave them. This is what it is all about.

We learned about this via social media, so let people know what you are doing. Get involved in your community, show them we are a great group of people who care about our neighbors.

We are very fortunate to be able to ride in a wonderful part of the country. We may not have the “highway trials” but have picturesque woods and meadows that provide a great day of riding. We have been given much and in return, should give much back. In closing, thank you to all that participated in our charities. Please keep track of what you do so we can show people that we are a community or caring snowmobilers.

CLUB REPORTS

Photo by Dave Lowell and Marcia Miller