SAUGUS — A newly resurrected ski club emerged as an unlikely unifier for Saugus middle and high school students this winter.
It began when Saugus High School math teacher Kelly Vanikiotis said two of her students, juniors Kelly D’Eon and Jessica Carter, approached her last year about restarting the long-dormant program, which was led by a different faculty member before it disbanded in 2017.
Vanikiotis was supportive of the idea, but the budding group quickly hit a roadblock: finding funding for their new venture.
“It’s an expensive sport,” Vanikiotis said. “It’s expensive to get a bus to get there, and it was hard asking kids to pay that much money. There was a lot of interest, but people couldn’t afford the costs.”
She turned to former school committee chair Jeannie Meredith for help.
Meredith put Vanikiotis in contact with Waybright Elementary School PTO member Stephanie Mastrocola, who suggested Vanikiotis reach out to contacts at Wheelabrator waste management plant. It wasn’t long before the plant agreed to foot the cost — a total of $4,625 — of a coach bus to ferry students to and from Pats Peak in Henniker, N.H. every Monday for five weeks.
Funding sorted, Vanikiotis set out to recruit students. She enlisted the help of Belmonte Middle School physical education teacher Barbara Guarente with the hope of giving Belmonte students — who will soon share a new building with SHS — a chance to participate.
“I thought this might be the best opportunity to start merging our buildings together,” Vanikiotis said. “I thought it would be nice to include them because we’ll all be together eventually.”
Guarente added: “We’ve never done it at the middle school, so they’ve never had that opportunity before. This was perfect for them.”
In total, 33 students — 20 high schoolers and 13 middle schoolers — joined for the group’s (re)inaugural year.
At Saugus High School, students had nothing but praise for a club many said brought them closer to their classmates in ways they never expected.
“You don’t have to be good at skiing to do it,” said Ally D’Eon. “Some of us weren’t good and we fell down every time, but it’s fun to get up and laugh at yourself. You’re with your friends, so even if you’re not the greatest skier, it’s still fun.”
Senior Jake Hogan said the program helped him break out of his shell.
“I’m usually not really an outgoing person. (I don’t usually) try new things,” he said. “But my friends convinced me to do it and it was really worth it. It’s not really competitive, it’s just you pushing yourself.”
D’Eon added: “Nobody’s going to tell you you’re so bad and you should stop. They’ll be like, ‘you got up there, that’s great.'”
With the help of his peers, Josh Patterson graduated from bunny hills to black diamond slopes in a matter of weeks, despite the fact he’d never skied before.
“Everybody cheers you on and helps you get where you need to be … I never would have gotten off the bunny hill without the help of this one,” he said, gesturing to D’Eon.
Feb. 10 was the group’s last trip to Pats Peak this season, but Guarente sees a long future for Ski Club this time around.
“I’m sure there will be a lot more kids in the future, especially once we’re combined,” she said. “It was a great program and there was a lot of bonding.”
Vanikiotis said she was simply happy her students were given a chance to challenge themselves and connect with their peers, adding that many of the students were friendly with one another before the club began, but that braving the slopes was what “really bonded them.”
“It was a lot of work but it was so much fun and so worth it,” she said. “This was such an awesome group of kids.”
