Watch the 2010 Olympics live!

Watch the 2010 Olympics live!
for free from 4-6pm and 8-11pm on the BIG SCREEN @ Latchis

Sponsors and Donations



Mt. Snow is our honorary sponsor for this event for all that they do to make the "learn to ski" program affordable and accessible to all of our WSESU winter sports ski programs.

Thank you to the below businesses. Without their support this event would not be possible.







Watch the 2010 Olympics live!

join us before or after the movie at the Latchis Theater and watch the second night of the Olympics on live TV on the big screen in the main theater. possible highlights should include ski jumping (normal hill), speed skating (men's 5000m) biathlon (women's sprint), short track (ace Apolo Ohno eyes gold in the men's 1500m), alpine's fastest event -- the men's downhill -- and women's moguls.

Read a newspaper article about our event: from a previous year

Brattleboro Reformer (VT)



WSESU celebrates winter sports program with Latchis fundraiser

HOWARD WEISS-TISMAN, Reformer Staff

Friday, January 25 BRATTLEBORO -- It's a long way from the snowshoe trails behind the Putney Central School to the top of Alaska's highest peaks, but the motivation behind spending time in either spot is the same: getting out and enjoying winter.

On Saturday, the schools in the Windham Southeast Supervisory Union will be celebrating their winter sports program with a showing of Warren Miller's new film, "Playground," which was shot in Alaska, as well as in Utah, Sweden and Japan.

Over the past six decades, Miller has made 58 films of skiers and snowboarders attempting some of the most death-defying feats at the most exotic and extreme mountains in the world. His films, which he has produced every year since 1950, have become an annual and eagerly awaited rite of the winter sports season.

For decades, the schools in WSESU have hosted winter activity programs that bring students out to area ski slopes, as well as to cross country and snowshoe trails. But budget cuts are making it harder to support the program, while a weak economy is forcing more parents to work which makes it hard, or impossible, to chaperone the ski trips.

The event is a fundraiser and 100 percent of the proceeds will be given out to the schools in the district to support winter activities. But event chairwoman Lauren Petrie said it is just as important to raise awareness about the program which she says is struggling to stay alive.

"Local dollars and state dollars have tightened up and it has become more difficult for the district to support these programs," Petrie said Thursday. "People who have been in this community for a long time aren't aware that there has been this kind of bump in the road for winter activities."

For the first time this year, Academy School had to limit the downhill skiing and boarding to only grades 4 through 6, and throughout the district, Petrie said, program directors are having a hard time finding parents to help out and dollars to buy lift tickets.

Putney Central principal Amelia Stone said she has made the winter activities program a standard part of the curriculum there. Some students go to Mount Snow on Friday while some go to Grafton to cross country ski. Others walk the trail behind the school in snowshoes.

"We've got a core mission and let families know when they come to Putney that this is a part of our vision for education," Stone said about the winter activities. "These kids live in Vermont and it is a long winter. It is good for everybody to be outdoors."

The Putney Central board used to put money in the budget for winter sports, but that was slashed a few years ago to help out taxpayers. Stone said the school works hard to raise funds and makes sure that every child who wants to go to Mount Snow gets the opportunity. She said the film this weekend should be a good reminder to everyone in the area that winter is made for fun.

Miller's films feature athletes riding helicopters to remote, snow-packed mountains, and then riding down steep slopes to rocking soundtracks. "Playground" features Bode Miller and Zach and Reggie Crist, with the music of the Beastie Boys, Queens of the Stone Age and Maroon 5.

Most of the students who take part in the WSESU winter activities program will probably never ride a helicopter to the top of a mountain in Alaska. But Petrie said that feeling of dressing up and embracing the cold and snow starts at an early age, and she hopes the residents around Windham County come out to check out some jaw dropping scenery and support winter sports.

"The district is no longer able to give the support it has in the past, and the program is being altered and that concerns me," Petrie said. "It's important to learn young. These films inspire kids that life is about taking positive risks. We don't want this program to go away."

"Playground" will be shown Saturday at the Latchis at 7 and 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $12 at the door. Howard Weiss-Tisman can be reached at hwtisman@reformer.com or 802-254-2311, ext. 279. (c) 2008 Brattleboro Reformer. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Media NewsGroup, Inc. by NewsBank, Inc.