I have had a few questions regarding grooming at Raccoon River Park. For those of you who don't know, the Des Moines Cross Country Ski Club (DMXSki) was newly formed this year out of an effort to have groomed trails closer to the city. We have been working diligently the past several months with the City of West Des Moines and other interested parties to make this happen for this season. We sent out a petition on which we receive 250 names of people interested in cross country skiing in Des Moines. After presenting that to the City, they were on board with grooming at Raccoon River Park. They agreed to higher a contract seasonal employee to do the job, take care of trail maintenance, put up signage, and pay for a portion of the equipment. The do not already own a snowmobile and it was not going to be possible to purchase one out of their budget. Therefore, it left us with the responsibility to raise enough funds to cover the cost of the rest of the equipment and a snowmobile. Confident that the funds would be no problem, we moved forward with a campaign. Of the 250 names on the petition, only a couple of them actually took the next step to donate. We met with a few key donors, but they were rightfully unwilling to purchase something that the city should. We attempted a fundraising event, but there were on a small number of attendees.
With all of that being said, we have enough money to purchase the equipment, but have fallen short on the snowmobile. For those of you who have done this in the past, how did you get it done? We may need to close the books on our hopes for this year, but with some funding in the bank and a little more time, we will continue on for next year.
We would like some insight, so please, offer your suggestions.
The City of West Des Moines did clear paths for the potential trails, so if you have some backcountry skis, there is lots of area to go trekking around.
By the way, if you are in the Des Moines area and would like to stay in tune with the club, we have a Google Groups set up that is open for anyone to join. Just go to http://groups.google.com/group/desmoinescrosscountryskiclub
We also have a website under construction and hope to have it live by the first part of February.
