Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — First Impressions of Routt County has been chosen to benefit from the thousands of dollars raised by corporations, local businesses and residents through a silent and live auction at Snowball 2001.

Snowball is an annual dinner and dance sponsored by the Steamboat Ski and Resort Corp. designed to support community organizations and outstanding citizens of the town.

At 6:30 p.m. Saturday at the Steamboat Grand Resort Ballroom, a silent auction will take place before this year's Hazie Werner Award of Excellence winner, Jayne Hill, is recognized.

After dinner and a live auction, The Nacho Men of Denver will play some rock 'n' roll dance music.

This is the first year First Impressions, a community board focused on all aspects of early childhood care and education, has earned the honor of receiving the proceeds from Snowball. Ski corp. chooses a different community organization every year.

"We're excited the ski area has chosen First Impressions," said Renee Donahue, an employee of First Impressions who writes grants and participates in community outreach. "There's a huge need for early childhood education. It's a whole community issue."

Proceeds from Snowball will benefit children in Routt County through materials and equipment to increase educational development, training for professional staff, recruiting teachers for quality programs and providing scholarships for families to help pay for child-care tuition.

Nancy Stahoviak, co-chair for First Impressions, said since the board was formed in 1998, it has been dedicated in furthering the awareness and education of early childhood development from birth to age 5.

"Our children are our future. We need to start educating and providing care," Stahoviak said, adding that First Impressions has created a finance formula for licensed home-care and child-care centers on a per-pupil basis.

First Impressions was chosen as the beneficiary because of its monetary need, longevity in the community, current situation, future challenges and how it would spend the money received, said Heidi Barbee, event coordinator for ski corp. She said personal involvement with ski corp. is also a factor.

"For instance, this year many employees have day-care needs," Barbee said.

Many of the live auctioned items at Snowball include a trip to Key West, Fla., a season ski pass and art. Paintings, a box of cigars, various wines and massages will be part of the silent auction that continues throughout the night.

"We typically raise around $25,000 from ticket sales and corporate table sales," Barbee said.

While also receiving the benefits of Snowball, First Impressions recently received a $10,000 grant from the Colorado Department of Human Services for early childhood emotional and social development. This grant will fund a project, still in the planning stages, for Social Emotional Early Development, or SEED.

For the Hazie Werner Award of Excellence, Hill will be presented with an award to honor her contributions to the community. Hill has spent 17 of the past 22 years at Steamboat Springs High School, where she was the librarian and supervised the advent of the Internet in the media center. She also has devoted her energy to the Tread of Pioneers Museum, the Centennial Pageant, "Signatures" and the Centennial Commission and Celebration.

An 8-minute biography of Hill will be shown at the event, and she will be presented with a crystal engraved bowl for her honor.

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