Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — Jayne Hill has been an advocate for young people in Steamboat Springs and a caretaker of local history for 22 years. Now, she's to be honored with the 2001 Hazie Werner Award for Excellence at the 19th annual Snowball March 3.

Chris Diamond, president of the Steamboat Ski and Resort Corp., made the announcement this week.

Hill spent 17 of the last 22 years at Steamboat Springs High School, where she was the librarian and supervised the advent of the Internet in the media center. So, it is fitting that among the projects she has tackled since retiring in 1996 is the restoration of the Mesa Schoolhouse, an original one-room school on U.S. 40 south of town.

Hill has always opened her heart and home to young adults in Steamboat. She began her work at Steamboat Springs High School as a part-time English teacher after she and husband Ed moved here from Alamosa in 1978.

Following her first year at the high school, Hill's contract was up, but then Principal Charles Mitchell found a way to keep her, creating the position of "dean of girls." Her duties included counseling, coordinating activities and career education. Even after she returned to college in 1980 to pursue a master's degree in educational media, she never quite lost the role of "social director and dispenser of wisdom." She guided many students through frustrations with schoolwork and dispensed unlimited common sense.

Hill's dedication to the students was also evident in the fact that she held the relatively role of student council adviser for 11 years and took great pride in helping the students realize real accomplishments.

Jayne and Ed also opened their home to elite athletes when Ryan Heckman and Tim Tetreault moved to Steamboat as older teens to train with the U.S. Nordic Combined Ski Team. Both athletes went on to become Olympians and gave much credit to the safe home base they had living with the Hills.

In the past few years, Hill has devoted her energy to the Tread of Pioneers Museum, the Centennial Pageant, "Signatures," and the Centennial Commission and Celebration.

The Hazie Werner Award was established by the ski corp. 13 years ago to pay tribute to women who have achieved a standard of excellence in their field.

The list of previous winners includes many of the leading figures in Steamboat's modern history.

They are: Skeeter Werner Walker, Katy Rudolph Wyatt, Eleanor Bliss, Carol Baily, Lucile Bogue, Criss Fetcher, Dorothy Wither, Sureva Towler, Rita Valentine, Geneva Taylor, Carol Schaffer and Gloria Gossard.

This year's Snowball will benefit First Impressions of Routt County.

Tickets are available and can be obtained by contacting Terry Dargevics at the Steamboat Ski and Resort Corp. at 879-6111, ext. 5102.