Knowlton Academy celebrating 50 years of hitting the slopes

By Taylor McClure, Special to Brome County News

This year, Knowlton Academy is celebrating 50 years of its beloved ski program. The ski program at Knowlton Academy finds its early beginnings in 1970, with a small group of mothers who wanted to share their skills and passion for the sport with children from the community. Since coming to the school, the program has developed into a major pillar for the community that has had a lasting impact on the lives of current and former students. “I guess I would say that I actually started it,” said Lucile Wheeler Vaughan, a former Canadian Olympian, who got the ball rolling in 1968 at what was the Gables School in Foster. “The principal of what was Knowlton High School at the time approached my husband and asked if I would be interested in starting a ski program.”
As the first individual in Canada to win an Olympic medal for downhill skiing and the winner of the World Ski Championships, Vaughan was the perfect fit to get the program off the ground.
“It was a good age for my two children, they were both attending the program, and I was enthusiastic to pass on the sport of skiing to as many young people as possible,” she recalled. “The Gables School, which I believe was run by the Christian Brothers at one point, was about three to four miles away from Knowlton Academy High School,” she added noting that, “Knowlton Academy High School was over crowded so they moved the first three grades to the Gables in Foster. We started the program from grades 1 to 3.” See full story in the Feb. 25 edition of the Brome County News.

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