A cross-country ski club in Pemberton is looking for the community’s help after a trailer containing thousands of dollars worth of gear was stolen last week. Delores Franz Los, chairperson of the long-running Spud Valley Nordic Association—which operates a popular weekly kids’ “Jackrabbit” program, a junior racer program and fun events for adults each winter—said the nearly five-metre-long cargo trailer and its contents were likely taken from the Nairn Falls Campground parking lot during Thursday evening, Dec. 16. The trailer had been sitting in the lot, as it does every winter, for around two weeks.
A groomer who showed up at the site to lay tracks for the club’s upcoming programming alerted her to the missing trailer on Friday, Dec. 17, she said. Franz Los had last visited the trailer Wednesday afternoon to gather supplies for a club wax clinic. The theft has been reported to Sea to Sky RCMP.
“[The groomer] said, ‘You can see somebody cut the wheel lock,’” Franz Los recalled.
“The loss of the trailer is one thing, but the equipment that we use for the program, that’s the biggest loss. And to get that replaced is very, very difficult,” she continued. “We would always apply for grants and get grants to purchase those things. There’s thousands and thousands of dollars worth of equipment in there. And the thing is, whoever took the trailer wouldn’t be interested in that equipment, I’m sure.”
Franz Los estimates that the gear is valued at approximately $10,000. The trailer held around 11 pairs of cross-country skis and poles, eight pairs of roller skis with bindings, drink containers and tables for refreshments, tools and drills, balls and beanbags for kids’ games and bibs for races, to name just a few of the items. All the sports equipment is labelled with the club’s name, Franz Los said.
Spud Valley Nordics have had an agreement with BC Parks for “quite a few years” to keep a cargo trailer filled with mostly kids’ ski equipment in the Nairn Falls Campground parking lot where most of the club’s programming is based. BC Parks has always supplied the club with a key to access the site.
“The gate would be locked all winter, as most parks are, and then we would open it just for our programs,” she explained.
But last year, as demand for open spaces and outdoor activities spiked, Los said Tourism Pemberton asked BC Parks to consider leaving the gate unlocked and the parking lot open to the public at all times—and BC Parks obliged.
“And of course now the gate is open all the time, day and night. And so anything can happen, right? There’s nobody at the park, except for when we’re there on Mondays,” Franz Los said.
In the more than three decades since Spud Valley Nordics’ programming launched, “We’ve never had a problem with anything stolen anywhere, from anybody. And it’s only happened because last year because the gate is open all the time … we worried last year that something was going happen.”
Franz Los said the club is hoping to work with BC Parks and Tourism Pemberton to find a more secure solution.
But for now, the club is looking to get back on its feet and continue offering its cross-country programming to Pemberton families this winter. A GoFundMe has launched to help the club purchase new equipment (available at gofundme.com/f/vk376-help-spud-valley-nordics) and has already reached more than $5,000 of its $10,000 goal as of press time, thanks especially to a $2,000 from the Pemberton Valley Supermarket.
“We’re going to keep going,” Franz Los said, adding that the club will focus on replacing a few key, basic materials like tables and drink container’s for kids’ refreshments ahead of their next session on Jan. 3.
“We have some money in the club, so we’ll buy some basic equipment for every coach, so they can do activities—kids learn by having fun, so we’ll buy some basic activities,” she said. The Pemberton clinic has also offered to donate a replacement First Aid Kit, Franz Los added.
“We’ll just start little by little and try to replace the things that we can with the money that we have. But we can’t store anything, and so what we’ll have to do is we’ll have to bring it back and forth every time, for every session. Which is a real nuisance.”
If anyone’s interested in contributing to the club’s fundraising efforts, Franz Los said she’s also available at [email protected].
“If anyone sees a pile of stuff dumped somewhere, from big wooden skis, to things that don’t look like skis—lots of balls and pinnies and stuff—Just tell us where to pick it up and we’ll come and get it."
