TOC Jackrabbit Youth Ski Program – Winter 2024.

Registration for cross-country ski lessons for kids will be open from this Friday, November 10th and will close on Friday, December 1st 2023.

We anticipate lessons beginning in early/mid January (depending on snow conditions) and will run through until late March 2024.

Here is some important information about the winter 2024 Jackrabbit program:

1. If you would like to register a child(ren) this year, please do so on or before the deadline. After this date, registration will only be considered if space and rental gear is available.
2. For winter 2024, we are going to offer two ski lesson options this year. Families will be need to pick one option for each child they register.
   • Option #1: Group Ski Lessons – kids will join a group each week based on their ski ability and their age. This year, our lessons will look a little different than previous years. If this will be your childs’ first or second year in x-country ski lessons, we will pre-assign them to a group with a designated coach. This will be called the Bunnyrabbit program. For children that have been skiing for more than two years, we will not pre-assign them to a group but instead everyone will meet at a designated start point each week and will then be split into groups with rotating coaches that will decide on the day, where to ski and what to do with the kids.
     
     Please note, if you child is pre-school aged and will be registering for the Bunnyrabbit program (learn to ski for 4-5 year olds), a parent must be present. All group ski lessons will be on Sundays afternoons from 1-2:30pm.
   • Option #2: Family Ski – this option will be for families who prefer to ski together without a coach present. It is available for families of all ages and abilities (although parents are meant to ski together with their kids so should have basic skills) and is designed to give families access to ski gear rentals for the kids for the season and the flexibility to ski when they can and at their own pace. Children that register in this program will be invited to come out to fun events and activities that are organized by the Jackrabbit program at the end of the season.
3. Cost for the Jackrabbit program is $60 per child. This includes gear rental for the season ($35) and lessons ($25). If your child has cross-country ski gear already, you can choose to register for lessons only. Bursaries are available for families this year. Please contact Kate at kate.bredin@gmail.com if you would like financial assistance to register your child(ren) in the program.
4. Each child participating in the Jackrabbit program must also be a member of the Tantramar Outdoor Club, either as part of a family membership or as an individual member. Please note, a family membership is $100 (if parents/other siblings will also use the trails for skiing this winter) or an individual membership which is $50 (if your child will be the only member of your family skiing this winter). On the registration page, you only need to select either a family membership or an individual membership option. On the registration page, once you have selected the membership type you will be asked to add individual members to the membership. If you are a family, you will need to add each individual member in your family and for each child you will need to indicate that you are registering them for Jackrabbit.
5. Equipment will be given out in mid-December. We will confirm the dates and times for gear pick-up after registration closes. Please note, kids must be present for gear pick-up so that they can try on boots and make sure everything fits well.

Finally (and importantly), if you or someone in your family is interested in being a coach for the Jackrabbit program this year, please us know asap (send me a DM or an email to rwalker@mta.ca) as we are looking for additional community coaches to help. There are local coaching courses that you can take in the region and lots of support for learning to be a ski coach.