By Sarah Hale, SVI Media

For the second year in a row Thayne Snow Days will not be taking place. The popular community event, a staple of winter fun for nearly 20 years in Star Valley, failed to gain enough volunteers to happen in 2018.

“It is with deep regret that I have to send out this news – that Snow Days won’t happen again this year,” said Lorell Woolley. “We have not received enough help to make it happen in the time we have left.”

Thayne Snow Days traditionally takes place the first weekend in February.

“We had a good meeting on Nov. 30 and had about 10 people show up and want to help and do what they could to make this event happen,” said Woolley. “But we need many more than that. We need people to run the races and help with getting everything set up. We need help in lots of different areas and with lots of different things. And we just didn’t have what we needed again this year.”

According to Woolley, the event has provided a fun and family friendly outing for families in Star Valley and across the region for a number of years. However, people are busy and the spirit of community volunteerism is dying out.

“We are seeing that in a number of different areas,” he said. “People are just not willing to volunteer the time that they have the way that they used to in the community. People change and events change and communities change and we are seeing that. Also, I think that the sport of snowmobiling has changed over the last several years. It used to be a family activity and now it is more and more an extreme sport.”

According to Woolley, through the years Thayne Snow Days has enjoyed being a part of the community.

“I want to thank everyone who has made an effort to try and make it work this year,” he said. “And of course we want to thank all of the volunteers who have put so much time in making Snow Days a great event for the past 17 years. We have had the best volunteers whose dedication is unmatched.”

According to Woolley, the future of Thayne Snow Days is very much in question at this point. And always, he is hopeful that people will step up and step forward so that the event will continue to be a Thayne winter tradition.
“We will just have to see how things go as we move forward,” he said.