FoAM: Friends Of Alpine Meadows Officially Launches Their Campaign

It’s not a secret that there’s plenty of people that are not happy with the way Alpine Meadows has been managed under the ownership of Squaw Valley Ski Holdings and KSL Capital. Over the last three years, we’ve written about the subject more than 20 times. We’ve distributed hundreds of stickers, gained hundreds of new Facebook fans and thousands of new readers and supporters.

When it became apparent that SVSH was planning on eliminating the identity of Alpine Meadows, other groups began to get involved in the cause. Over the last year we have seen employees, teams, passholders, community organizations and local businesses all rally to protect the resort we love. The formation of Friends of Alpine Meadows has not been a secret over the last few months. More than 1000 people have become fans of the page on Facebook.

It didn’t stop there. Meetings were held and committees were formed, and today, the Friends of Alpine Meadows officially announced their presence with a press release. The release highlights:

• The official release of the group’s website at http://friendsofalpinemeadows.com  The site spells out some clear goals for working with mountain managers to protect, preserve and honor Alpine Meadows. In addition to goals, the site also introduces the steering committee, which includes a broad spectrum of individuals with strong connections to the mountain. According to FoAM spokespersons, the steering committee is just an interim step toward developing a full board of directors.

• FoAM is conducting a survey of Alpine Meadows skiers and riders. While some elements of the survey duplicate what we have done here at Unofficial Alpine, the focus of the survey is to identify the most important goals and actions to be taken by FoAM. We encourage your participation in the survey at http://surveymonkey.com/s/alpinemeadowsusersurvey. Reports are that more than 200 people have completed the survey already, before it has been announced.

• Distribution of FoAM buttons began on the mountain today. It didn’t take too long to see several people wearing them proudly on the mountain. The buttons follow up on the wild success of the “I <3 Alpine” buttons released several years ago. The buttons are being distributed by supporters of FoAM, so the best way to find one is to ask someone where they got theirs. We’ll be handing them out on the mountain this week too.

• Donations to Friends of Alpine Meadows can be made at the FoAM website as well. Donations can be submitted via a PayPal link. Currently donations are being used to fund the button outreach campaign.

We’re happy to see the rise of yet another community group that is willing to declare that “big business as usual” is not an acceptable solution for us. Alpine Meadows is an asset that is unique to the Tahoe region, and we should stand together to protect it. We encourage you to get involved before it’s too late.