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October 29, 2003Mt. Holiday ski area will light up sky tonightIt is scheduled to open for season Dec. 15ByRecord-Eagle staff writer ACME - Starting this evening, there'll be a little unaccustomed radiance in the night sky over the Holiday Hills. For the first time in two years, the lights at the Mt. Holiday ski hill will be turned on - as a symbol of the successful effort to resurrect the venerable recreation center, and as a reminder that it will be open for business again this winter. "We're lighting up the night again," said Jim Kalajian, president of the Mt. Holiday Inc., the nonprofit group that purchased the hill last year and has been raising money to replace old facilities and equipment ever since. Since mid-September, the group has managed to raise the last $50,000 it needed to make sure Mt. Holiday will be up and running - weather permitting - by Dec. 15. Kalajian said the group's big challenge now is to persuade local skiers and snowboarders that the ski hill really will be opening for business. At a meeting last week, the Mt. Holiday board decided the best way to demonstrate the hill's viability would simply be to throw the light switch. The lights will go on at 6 p.m., and should be visible for miles. "It's bound to get people's attention," said Kalajian. "Hopefully, it'll remind them to buy their season tickets now while the prices are still low." First developed in 1949 by local businessmen who wanted to create an affordable ski area for families in the Grand Traverse area, Mt. Holiday slowly grew to its present 12 runs. Generations of local young people learned to ski and honed their skills there, but it failed to reopen for the 2001-2002 ski season and was slated for development when Kalajian's group decided to buy and restore it. So far, Mt. Holiday Inc. has raised $1.2 million, bought the property, reroofed and insulated the 50-year-old lodge and purchased several pieces of equipment, including a new snow tube run. The group has also received donations from other ski resorts - a $15,000 snow groomer from Boyne USA, a tube lift for the new snow tubing run from a California resort, and most recently 145 snowboards and 45 pairs of boots from Nubs Knob. Season tickets are now on sale, and cost $261 for an individual ticket, $450 for two people and $599 for a family of three to five. To order tickets, or for more information about the ski area, log on to mt-holiday.com.
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