KKSC

The Komo Kulshan Ski Club is a board-directed, incorporated, not-for-profit public charity dedicated to promoting the development of intellectual and emotional maturity, organizational skills and lifelong habits of physical health among Northwest Washington area youth through ski competition, family skiing and related snowsports activities.

The Club operates several ongoing programs to promote its educational and charitable purposes. In all of its activities the Club does not discriminate on the basis of race or ethnicity, gender, or religion.

Mt. Baker Race Team

The Mt. Baker Race Team provides additional training and opportunities for traveling to competitions for its participants, primarily young athletes ages 8-18 who are participating in the Mt. Baker Ski Area’s Racer Development Program. Approximately 60 young athletes participate in the ski area’s once-weekly all-day program, vacation ski camps and half-day midweek training sessions. Coaches from the Racer Development Program travel under the auspices of KKSC’s Mt. Baker Race Team to races at other ski areas to support program participants competing there, and occasionally attend coaching clinics for their own professional development. They are committed supporters of the Club and volunteer many hours outside of their coaching activities to further the Club’s goals. Program participants may pay program fees, including per-event away race coaching fees, which partly cover the costs of these Race Team activities. Komo Kulshan Ski Club fundraising activities cover the balance.

Scholarships

Please visit our Scholarship page for more information and to apply.

The Komo Kulshan Ski Club individual scholarship program pays program and related costs for a limited number of applicants when circumstances, including financial need, would otherwise preclude participation in an organized snowsport-related youth activity in the Whatcom County area. The KKSC board evaluates applications in the late fall and determines how many and which accept based on availability of funds and the merits of each compared with the club’s mission and objectives as a public charity.

Local disabled snowsports support

The Mt. Baker Ski Area provides personnel to assist persons with disabilities enjoying skiing activities. Often this assistance requires specialized equipment. Much of the specialized equipment of this type at the Mt. Baker Ski Area was paid for by the Komo Kulshan Ski Club from its fundraising activities, and we expect to continue to support the needs of the disabled community in this way.

Fundraising Activities

Operating the Club’s various programs takes money. Some of these programs, for example the Mt. Baker Race Team, gather participant fees to offset some of their costs. Other programs, like our scholarship activities, generate no revenue at all and are funded entirely by proceeds from the Club’s fundraising activities.

In general the Club’s board sets program fees with the objective of making participation affordable, and avoids establishing fees that raise more revenue than required to cover the costs the program incurs.

Ski Swap

By long tradition each fall the Club organizes the annual Komo Kulshan Ski Swap, where the public as well as vendors from around the region come to sell and buy used and old-inventory new ski and snowboard equipment and clothing. The Club charges a 25% commission from sellers on each sale. On occasion equipment is donated to the Club to be sold at the Swap; in these cases the Club counts as income the full proceeds of the sale. In recent years each Swap has raised approximately $12,000 to $18,000.

Ski Races

Each year, conditions permitting, the Club puts on at least one all-comers ski race at the Mt. Baker Ski Area. Local individuals and businesses are solicited for sponsorships; token recognition is given for larger donations in the form of banners attached to racecourse fencing, logos on T-shirts distributed to event participants and volunteers and sold to the public, logos on participants’ identifying number bibs, and similar. The Mt. Baker Ski Area sometimes chooses to donate a portion of the costs of course preparation (use of snow moving and transportation equipment, personnel time for safety management, and so on).

The Club pays all costs for these events, excepting in-kind donations such as those described here, from sponsorships and funds on hand. It accepts the significant risk that the event does not generate income, as organizing a ski race by itself furthers the objectives of the Club for those observing, participating in and helping with it. Happily these events generally bring in $1000 to $5000 in revenue.