The Friday Night Skiers Party
 When: Friday - August 11
Where: Keith St. Onge's House and Training Center

The Friday Night Party was the event that made the 2006 Nationals.  Keith St. Onge had been preparing all year for the party he was excited to be hosting everyone at his new home.

Keith and I both had been working behind the scenes on some major changes and enhancements to our combined businesses, and the goal was to announce them at the party.

The first announcement was that after many years of working together, Keith asked that we co-brand his ski school with Barefoot Central's logo. Every time we go to an event, we are always having to decide which logos to put on shirts, hats, etc, and in the past, we have always had to produce two versions of each.  And since BarefootCentral.com has been providing all of Keith's Pro-shop services on-line for the last two years, he thought it was time to officially bring the two companies together.

The result of the combined marketing strategy is that the name Gliding Soles will no longer exist.  Keith will be changing his ski school name to the Barefoot Central Ski and Training Center USA.  We kept the "S" foot and incorporated it into the BFC logo.

Keith planned to serve barbeque ribs and chicken to about 130 people.  By the end of the night, we had served over 160 people.  We had a keg of beer and plenty of Barefoot Wine was on hand for all.

Some announcements that I had included awarding Keith a clock (above) in honor of him breaking the 12 year old Slalom World Record. The clock signified that it's only a matter of TIME before someone breaks his record. 

Another announcement was that we had come to present our Team BFC and Team Eagle skiers that are on the US Team with the suits they will be wearing at the upcoming Worlds.  The guys did not know we were planning to present these, so they were all very surprised.  The new suits were a lot different than US Team suits of the past and were so well liked, we were inundated with requests for nearly all the US Team member as well as all the independent skiers.  We'll be taking orders for the suits over the next week and getting them to the team for out of pocket cost.  I stressed that in coming years we would be willing to build suits for the team only if they all agreed to ski in the same suit and compete as ONE team.  Names were left off all the Team BFC and Team Eagle suits because we want the guys to be viewed as a team competing together at the upcoming Worlds.

IMPORTANT
If you are a skier on the US Team, please call Michele Gleason at BarefootCentral.com at 281-395-9751 to place your order.
We'll also be making these suits available to everyone right after the Worlds
 

Keith also officially opened his on-site Pro Shop.  He had spent the summer, between traveling clinics, working on the shop with his dad.  He had also spent the last year remodeling his new house and having a ton of landscape work done.  I was very impressed with the transformation that occurred from when I was at his house in early March til now.
 

As we were about to wind up all the announcements and get the entertainment started, I looked to the back of the room and saw Banana George and his wife Joanne walk in.  The place went crazy as George walked to the front to say a few words.  As he reached out to shake Keith's hand, he acted like he was flipping Keith over his shoulder and Keith fell on the ground playing along like they had rehearsed it may times.  George then took to the microphone and asked if he could tell Mike Salber something.  He announced that Duck Tape would not be allowed at the Blairfoot Bonanza this year.  The he turned and shared his thoughts and congratulation with Keith.  Willy Farrell jumped in as well to congratulate Keith. 

As soon as the talk was over, we kicked off the music and were entertained the rest of the night by fellow footer and blues harmonica player Kevin Keith.  He was amazing!  We can't thank him enough for doing such a great job. Banana was dancing with all the kids.  Willy and Dawn shook a leg

 

More Party Pictures

So for all of you that missed the party, you missed a GREAT time.
Thanks to everyone that helped bring the party together including:
Claude St. Onge
Michele Gleason
John Hill
Mike Salber
Ryan Boyd
Chris Morrison
Nolan Lough
and Doug Walters & his family for the great barbeque.

To view all the photos from the 2006 Nationals and order your own prints,
Click Here