CVU skier Abby Owens of Shelburne will participate in the 1,000,000 feet vertical ski challenge on Sunday, March 14 at Cochran's Ski Area.

What's it going to take to get lights at Cochran's Ski Area?" Kris Owens of Shelburne asked Joe Cutts, a Cochran's board member. the short answer: $50,000. "Not as much as I thought," Owens admitted to herself as she began formulating a fundraising plan.

Currently several Chittenden County high school ski teams, including CVU, call Cochran's home during the ski season. Because there are no lights, the students leave school early for training and competitions. It is the only school sport that presents such an academic challenge. Lights would not only improve the training quality and options but likely the grade point average of the students who train there.

The initial phase of fundraising was a mailing that raised $20,000. Then Owens contacted CVU alpine coach, Mike Minnerly, to gauge his interest in doing a fundraiser with the high-school athletes who would benefit from the lights. According to Owens, "Minnerly jumped in with both feet." And the one million vertical feet ski challenge was born.

Met with enthusiasm, the vertical ski challenge is planned for 1 p.m. Sunday, March 14 at Cochran's Ski Area in Richmond. There are 50-60 participating athletes, a majority from CVU, but others from Rice, Essex, Harwood, and Burlington who will ski 1,852 runs on the rope tow, or roughly three hours, to reach the goal of one million vertical feet. Owens shares, "we are counting both up and down given the fact that it's a ground lift and going up is much more difficult than going down."

In 1998 Cochran's became the nation's first non-profit 501 (c)(3) ski area with the goal of providing area youth and families with affordable skiing and riding, lessons, and race training. "Cochran's has always supported high school alpine race teams in need of an after-school practice area and has been more than generous with a very affordable training fee." Minnerly added, "It's just another way they give back to the youth of Chittenden County. Now it's our turn to give back."

CVU alpine skier, Abby Owens agrees. "If we raise enough money for the lights, next year will be great school-wise. We won't miss as many classes," she said.

And talk about incentives. "The goal for the one million vertical feet ski challenge is to raise $10,000," Minnerly says, "Anything we can dangle as a carrot in front of the skiers will help us to achieve our goal." There's restaurant gift certificates, an i-pod, new racing skis, clothing, and much more swag to be given to the skier who raises the most money, takes the most runs, or has the best costume (yes, costumes are encouraged) among other contests throughout the challenge. Minnerly asked each skier to be responsible for raising $200. "I heard that some kids have raised $1, 000," he bragged. "They must really want new racing skis."

Even if the vertical ski challenge goes as planned, there is still an additional $20,000 that needs to be raised to reach the ultimate goal: lights for Cochran's.

Owens suggests reaching out to the community for financial support or perhaps finding a corporate sponsor as a way to culminate the fundraising efforts. Interested in making a tax-deductible donation? Simply visit www.cochranskiarea.com and click on donations or call Mike Minnerly (802) 453-3660.

And the bottom line for the skiers...I'm looking forward to the challenge on Sunday," says Abby Owens of Shelburne. "Since the season is officially over it will be really fun for us to be together as a ski team again."