Sometimes the power of Facebook amazes me.  This week I happily reconnected with Reverend Skip Schwarz, who was at the Sugarloaf Area Christian Ministry when I first moved to Sugarloaf back in 1984.  I actually still live at Sugarloaf and moved here at the age of 24, which was 26 years ago.  Hard to believe how time flies when you’re as busy as I’ve been all these years.

I was working in the Marketing Department and Skip was the minister at the chapel on the mountain. One day, Skip came in to the administration building where I had an office near my boss, the legendary Chip Carey (he is now VP Marketing at Jackson Hole Resort in Wyoming.)  Skip had this idea of doing a church service on skis.  Now don’t get confused, because I’m telling a story about Skip, the minister, and Chip, the marketing guy who was my boss and taught me a whole lot about marketing and public relations.

When we sent each other Facebook messages this week, Skip reminded me of how I helped him name a program that has become an important part of the story of his life.

I said “Why don’t you call it Downhill Worship?”   My mind had started racing, brimming with ideas.  “You could wear your robe, and you could ski down the mountain and everyone would look at you!” 

Well, I never knew this until we Facebooked this week,  but evidently Skip was hesitant, because he was afraid he would feel like a fool. But then he realized that skiing down a mountain wearing a church vestment would actually draw the attention he neeeded to get new ‘customers’ for his worship service.  And since Skip is a guy (like me) who can be a little bit crazy sometimes, like a lot of people who are drawn to Sugarloaf, Maine. Continue reading →