Staff Writer
DYER BROOK — Under the Saturday’s starless sky, the crowd gathered, waiting, sled-in-hand, for their chance. And then, with a swish of ski pants and a jump start push, they sailed off into a night of winter fun — no batteries or megabytes required.
Pioneer Times Photo/Sarah Berthiaume
READY FOR SLEDERS — The sliding hill next to Dyer Brook Community Church gets a touch up in preparation for weekend events. The church is hosting a free sliding activity for the whole family this weekend.
The super sliding hill, situated next to the Dyer Brook Community Church, opened for its inaugural night Feb. 9, welcoming sledders young and old.
“It’s an idea we’ve kicked around a few different times,” explained Andy Harthorne, pastor at the Route 2 church. “But this year, the ideas just started flowing. Economically, it seems like a challenging winter, especially with the cost of heating oil. So, we started brainstorming different things we could do for our community that would be fun and free.”
Enlisting help from the church’s “winter warriors” and gaining permission from the landowner, plans for the sliding hill have been in the works since the end of December.
“One of our biggest challenges, at first, was getting in touch with the landowner to ask permission to use the hill,” he said. “But we did and he was gracious enough to let us use the land. His only stipulation was that we had to have some kind of liability waiver form for people to sign. So, that’s one thing we’ve had to stipulate.”
After that, it was plotting logistics.
“We had a front end loader come in and build a kind of mountain of snow right at the top so we’d have a good starting point,” he said. “One of the men in our church has a snowmobile with a drag, so he’s been dragging it for us. And we’ve got a couple people installing a couple generators and hooking up lights so the hill will be lit from top to bottom.”
The end result of the church-wide effort: a sledding hill for all ages, overlooking one of the area’s best views and stretching one-tenth of a mile.
“We wanted to provide something for families in the area to do — something that’s close to home, something they could come to and just for them to enjoy an evening together,” he said. “And the weather’s cooperated really well. We’ve had lots of snow and some really cold nights which make the conditions just right.”
And, thanks to plenty of helpers, the sliding hill will be open again this Saturday.
“We’re going to go these two weekends and see what the response is after that,” he said. “If we get a huge response, we’re not ruling out opening the hill up again later — as long as the snow holds up.”
The sliding hill will be open from 6 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 16. All adults must sign a waiver of liability before sliding, and anyone under 18 years of age must have an adult sign for them before sliding. The event is free of charge and includes hot chocolate and snacks.
