Cross Country Skiers at Forbush Corner Nordic

End of the Year Report 2023-2024

Season Highlights

The 2023/24 season was one of the warmest winters with the least amount of snowfall ever recorded for our area. Instead of our normal average of 140 inches of snow, we only received 83 inches. Most of the snow that fell was from three large storms in which all the snow that fell melted a week later. Any winter activity that didn’t have snowmaking attached to it, did not fare well this year.

We definitely felt the impact of such a warm winter, but once again, the snowmaking loop allowed us to provide great skiing for most of the season. With the loop, we were able to host at the last minute Vasa’s Midwest Nordic Rendezvous and a classic ski race usually held at Hansen Hills. Even with the lightning strike in November delaying the snowmaking, we were still able to be open for 66 days versus 82 days last year. Our overall skier visits were down from 5,500 last year to only 4,000 this year. Sales in the shop and trail fees were down over $40,000. That is a huge number for us to absorb. That $40,000 was needed to fund projects, like finishing the pole barn and adding more trails to Crybaby, as well as paying our bills until next season.

We were given a very generous anonymous donation to help us weather this past winter’s lack of income. This donation will enable us to continue to pay our bills and to finish the new pole barn. We will have to table other projects like expanding trails on Crybaby, fixing the parking lot and other improvement projects, but we are grateful to be given this support to continue improving Forbush Corner Nordic and help us move forward with our expansion.

What’s New

A technical addition to the 2023-2024 season was adding Nordic Pulse, a realtime grooming and trail report showing which and when each trail in the system is groomed. In addition, it provides the skier a map on their phone showing them their location within the trail system.

We are actively working on becoming a four-season center. We are consulting with mountain bike trail designers to build 6-8 miles of trails. We are also working with the state to possibly expand onto the surrounding property to build out at least a 16-20 mile trail system. Northbound Outfitters is working closely with us to make these trails a reality. In April we worked with John Morton to develop a 2.5/5 km loop that will work for a biathlon range. This will be a much larger project to complete and is many years in the future, but we have the groundwork laid to start thinking about a snow making expansion. We were given a $10,000 grant from the Great Lakes Sports Commission to help pay for the trail design work for the biathlon and mountain bike trails.

We were also awarded a very large grant from the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) to fix the exterior of our 30-year-old pole barn/ski school and to install a two-seat ADA compliant vault toilet. This grant will allow us to move towards our four-season expansion with critical infrastructure improvements. Carlton Ketchum, one of our ski instructors, helped us secure this grant. Instructor Alan Hough refreshed our website and social media presence. Thank you to our very versatile instructors.

Off Season Projects:

Listed below are a few of our off season projects we are hoping to accomplish.

Finish new pole barn- concrete/electrical
Implement MDARD grant
Trail widening/smoothing and adding snowshoe trails and re-routes from logging
Fix muddy parking lot ??????? Funds dependent
Trail designers for mountain bike trails/biathlon range (GLSC grant money)
Shop improvements- foyer flooring/water bottle filling station

Financials

Revenues		Expenses
Donations-	$118,000	Operating expenses-	$96,800
Sales-	$49,000	Repairs-	$9,100
Rentals-	$3,700	Capital Outlay-	$79,700
Trails fees-	$71,700	Loans/interest-	$46,875
Miscellaneous-	$9,700	Human resources-	$3,000
Total	$252,100	Total	$235,475

Cash Assets		Debts
Savings-	$ 99,000	Groomer loan	$65,000 (plus future 4.5% simple interest)
Checking-	$30,000	Land purchase	Final payment of $33,500 Due: January 1, 2025
Total	$129,000

The quality Nordic Skiing at Forbush Corner would not be possible without all of our generous Donors. Thank you for your continued support and trust to make Forbush Corner Nordic even better.

GOLD LEVEL- $5,000 +	BRONZE LEVEL- $1,000-2,499
Frank Nizio/Linda Allen	Barb Wade	Todd Hubbard
Ernie Braumbaugh/Carole Muller-Braumbaugh	Glenn Goodman	Jean/Steve VanDam
Anonymous	Mary Mckinley	Paul/Simona Drake
	Chris Halter/Bill Fraser
SPONSOR LEVEL- $500-999	FRIEND- $500
Kathy Conway	William Kaltz	Mark Randolph
Tim/Cerri Faas	Robin Luce	Robert Vancl
Martha Avery	Steve/Nancy Biggs	Helene/Dan Rimer
Gwenn Stevenson	Stokes Schwartz	Robert/Julie Pettibone
Gaylord Middle School Ski Club	Robert/Julie Pettibone	Jay Fozgoua
	Anonymous
Board of Directors
Howard Hansen- President
Todd Hubbard- Secretary
Ann Wagar- Treasurer
Larry Damic- Director
Mario Kennedy- Director

Corporate Sponsors

	Borchers Riverside Bed and Breakfast 101 Maple St. Grayling, MI 49738 989-348-4921 www.canoeborchers.com		Woodlands Motor Lodge 267 I-75 Business Loop Grayling, MI 49738 989-348-9094 www.woodland-motel.com
	Au Sable Riverview Resort and Market Special promotion 20% of cabins and lodge rentals for Forbush skiers! 10935 Linger Longer Rd Grayling, MI 49738 Ph: 989-344-2164 ausableriverviewresort.com		ARBNB Snuggle In and Stumblin Terry and Kelly Vandecar vandecark@gmail.com Grayling, MI 9738 989-390-0452/989-348-3130

Contributions can be made through this Paypal link, through an individual’s charitable mutual fund, stocks/bond transfers or by check. We are a 501(3)(c) non-profit organization, registered with GuideStar and with the State of Michigan. Checks should be made out to Forbush Corner Nordic and mailed to the following address. Forbush Corner Nordic PO Box 118 Gaylord, MI 49734