FRANCONIA NOTCH, New Hampshire — New England Ski Museum, announced today that the organization’s Cal Conniff Grant program will award $2,500 to support individuals and organizations that align with the Museum’s mission to preserve the history of skiing and winter sports.

The Grant Program is named in honor of Ski Museum Board member Cal Conniff. He is a former Executive Director of the National Ski Areas Association, and while President of the Ski Museum founded the Hannes Schneider Meister Cup as a benefit event for the non-profit group. Conniff’s life in skiing reaches back to his youth, when at age 14 he operated the town rope tow in Springfield, Vermont, hiking up the slope each night to fire up the engine located at the top of the tow. In the late 1940s, Conniff worked as an assistant cook at Pinkham Notch Camp, located at the trailhead for Tuckerman Ravine, so that he could ski in the ravine, one of the most remarkable ski sites in the east.

2010 will mark the 10th year the Museum has awarded grants, funded with proceeds of the Hannes Schneider Meister Cup Race, held each March at Cranmore Mountain Resort in North Conway. The Cal Conniff awards will be announced on Friday, March 5, 2010 at the opening reception of the Schneider Race at Cranmore.

The Cal Conniff Grant Program is open to individuals, organizations and educational institutions with an interest in winter sports, such as Alpine and Nordic skiing, snowboarding and snowshoeing. Anyone who can demonstrate the need for funding for the purposes of education, preservation of skiing history, encouraging winter sports participation, or other involvement in snow sports is eligible.

The selection process is conducted by the Museum’s Grant Committee on an objective and nondiscriminatory basis. The committee judges applications based on the following:

• How important is this grant to the success of the program?
• Will this applicant contribute to the preservation of ski or snowboard history?
• Does the success of this applicant have an educational value?
• Does this application encourage participation in skiing or snowboarding?
• Does the applicant seem organized in the pursuit of the project?

The application process is kept purposefully informal. Applicants should send a letter that outlines a description of the project, its goals, the audience that it will impact, and the dollar amount requested. Supporting information for the application should include:

• Resume (individuals) or organizational description (groups);
• Two letters supporting the merits of the individual or program;
• Representative photograph of person or program that may be published by the Museum if the applicant is successful.

Applications materials may be e-mailed to [email]staff@skimuseum.org[/email] or mailed to:

Cal Conniff Grant Committee
New England Ski Museum
PO Box 267
Franconia, NH 03580

The deadline for applications is February 8, 2010.

About the New England Ski Museum

Located in Franconia Notch next to the Cannon Mountain Tramway, NH, the New England Ski Museum is a non-profit, member-supported museum dedicated to collecting, preserving and exhibiting aspects of ski history. The Museum is open from 10 AM to 5 PM seven days a week from Memorial Day through the end of March. Admission is free. The Museum also maintains satellite exhibits at the Shops at Norcross Place in downtown North Conway, NH and at Bretton Woods Mountain Resort. For more information call 800-639-4181 or visit www.skimuseum.org.