12 December 2012 Edition - Fiddlehead Focus

FAQs from page 1
Q. How and when do I sign
up for local home delivery?
A. In January we will print a
subscription form for local delivery
in the paper. We are not
taking orders for local home
delivery yet, but it will happen
soon. The price will be $52 for
local home delivery for 52
weeks.
Q. Why is the mail subscription
$100 per year, but local
home delivery is only $52 per
year?
A. We offer a service to mail
the Fiddlehead Focus to people
outside of the St. John Valley
that uses the U.S. Postal Service.
In order for people to receive
their paper in a timely
fashion, we are sending it out as
First Class mail, and the postage
costs at least $1.30 per paper.
The local home delivery service
will be for people in this region,
and will be available sometime
in January.
Q. Why don’t you sell the
paper for 50 cents, and let your
readers decide whether they
want to contribute to a charity?
A. At 75 cents, the price for a
printed copy of Fiddlehead Focus
is a great value, and supporting
our local folks is something we
have wanted to do since the beginning
of Fiddlehead Focus in 2010.
Moving to a paid paper gave us
the opportunity to achieve that
goal. The owners of local businesses
in the St. John Valley know
that they are always contributing
to a variety of charities and causes,
and the money for those contributions
eventually traces back to
the money their customers spend
on the products and services a
business offers. We just decided to
make our contributions this way.
If anyone has questions as we
move into this next chapter for
Fiddlehead Focus, please let us
know by emailing me at andrewb@fiddleheadfocus.com,
posting the question through our
Facebook page or calling us at 316
-2243.
Races from page 1
include waiving the late fee this
year; ensuring that prizes are primarily
in cash; or finding sponsors
for stage prizes, in which the
fastest dog team in a leg of the
race, from Eagle Lake to Moose
Point, for example, is eligible for
further prizes.
He said the Mad Bomber is
back as the 30-mile race sponsor,
and this year, that purse has increased
to $2,500.
Irving Woodlands returns as the
100-mile race sponsor, with a
$5,000 purse. They have been the
sponsor for that race over the last
eight years of the event's history,
said Kaleta.
He also thanked Fiddlehead
Focus and the Credit Union of
ME for being “lead dog sponsors.”
In Fiddlehead Focus' case,
he was referring to the paper's inkind
donations, in terms of coverage
and race publicity.
With the races this year almost a
week later than in some years, and
with the snow falling on Dec. 10,
Kaleta was optimistic about training
and race conditions for the
upcoming event.
Page 5
Fiddlehead Focus, December 12, 2012
Quebec City perfect backdrop for FIS Cross-Country World Cup races
By Julie Daigle
QUEBEC/ St. John Valley –
This past weekend, from Friday,
Dec. 7 through Sunday, Dec. 9,
Quebec City hosted the FIS
Cross-Country World Cup races.
Over 20 spectators from Fort
Kent, Presque Isle and other
northern Maine towns made the
three to four and a half hour
roundtrip north to experience the
uncommon thrill of watching the
best cross-country skiers in the
world compete just a few feet
from an enthusiastic, cheering
crowd.
10th Mountain even had the
opportunity to get onto the race
course. A security official asked
Sherry Dubis, president of the
Fort Kent 10th Mountain Ski
Club, if Kikkan Randall, U.S.
cross-country team member and
winner of the skate sprint races
on Saturday, could hold the 10th
Mountain American flag aloft
while she took her victory lap.
Randall and Jesse Diggins also
took gold on Friday in the women's
team sprint in an unprecedented
U.S. showing.
Saturday's races started off
gray but snow-free, with green
grass edging the sidewalks of
Quebec City outside of Vieux
Quebec, the old city. Race organizers
had trucked in snow to create
the racecourse just as Can-Am
International Sled Dog Race organizers
turn Main Street in Fort
Kent into a dogsled track every
year. They laid the course within
touching distance of the wall that
separates the old city from the
newer part, adding the ancient
stone monument to the background
behind brightly-clad, Lycra-suited
racers.
By the middle of the ski race,
snow was falling in fat snowflakes
on racers and spectators alike,
turning Quebec into a snow globe
of racing adrenaline. According to
CBC Sports, nearly 10,000 people
poured into the city to line the
looped race course and cheer on
the racers.
Spectator Carl Theriault of Fort
Kent said, “This was probably the
largest North American World
Cup audience I've seen outside of
the Olympics.”
In the festive atmosphere, dotted
with young women in blue Santa
suits handing out bells, leashed
dogs of every shape and size, outdoor
braziers of open-air flame
surrounded by yellow Adirondack
chairs, and vendors displaying
everything ski-related, from exercise
machines to smoked meat,
spectators blended with booted
pre-race or post-race athletes.
Both groups used the same pathways
to move around the race
course, enhancing the sensation of
everyone having front-row seats
at this international event.
George Dumond of Fort Kent
described the atmosphere as
“NASCAR on skis,” with skilled
sports commentators and a varied
musical selection contributing to
the fast-paced, high-energy atmosphere.
Kelly Martin of Fort Kent pointed
to the added excitement of an
obstacle in the middle of the
course, an 18-inch jump.
“The race was being called
there,” she said. Those who
pulled ahead at that point
generally won and those who
fell behind, lost.
Both the American men
and women's cross-country
athletes made it into the finals
on Saturday, but it was
Kikkan Randall who stole the
show, at least for the American
spectators, with her wins
on both Friday and Saturday.
“It was pretty special,” said
Martin about the event.
Right, Kikkan Randall
takes a victory lap with an
American flag from 10th
Mountain.
Image courtesy of Fasterskier.com
Bruce Labbe of the Eagle Lake
Public Works Department has
been hard at work building an
announcer's platform/stage for the
event's use. Kaleta said it's a twostory
structure that will complement
the new bleachers for spectators,
another first for the event.
The start remains at last year's
location on Convent Road, known
locally as “Dump road,” said Kaleta.
“We're pretty excited,” said
Kaleta. “We learned a lot last
year.”