with safety tips, trail updates and a calendar of events. They
use social media as well as the local newspaper and radio to
promote the club, their trails and snowmobile safety. Sno-
Trails Snowmobile Club adopted their youth program called
Youth Excited & Interested in Snowmobiles (YETIS) in 2015.
2020 International Snowmobile Dealer of the Year
– Day’s Powersports, Bloomer, Wis.
At just 11 years old, Day’s Powersports has built a distin-guished
reputation. It’s a family-owned business that be-lieves
in treating customers the way they like to be treated
– like friends. The staff is top-notch, very knowledgeable
and treats every customer like an old friend. Business owner
Jamison Day has been with the Bloomer Sno-Hawks Snow-mobile
Club for over two decades and has always been ac-tive
in supporting and growing the sport of snowmobiling in
Chippewa County. They provide a snowmobile for classroom
studies during DNR Snowmobile Safety Courses. They open
their shop space for club members to work on trail signs.
Their shop and mechanics are readily available to help with
repairs to groomers when needed and they provide storage
for the grooming equipment.
2020 International Groomer of the Year
– Don Wild, Antigo, Wis.
Don Wild started grooming snowmobile trails in 1968, when
the Antigo Sno-Drifters club was formed. Back then he did
it with only a snowmobile and built a homemade drag with
parts and pieces of old farm machinery. Today, Wild still
grooms at least three days a week on some of the most mod-ern,
commercially-made grooming units. Wild is an excellent
mechanic on heavy equipment and keeps the club’s groom-ers
and drags in top condition. He has been trail boss for the
Antigo Sno-Drifters for over 40 years. He coordinates with
the groomer operators on when and where to groom as snow
conditions warrant. Wild has developed several grooming
techniques, one his club calls “Snow Management,” a unique
way for holding snow in open areas which helps establish a
solid deep base in the flats where grooming is often difficult.
Wild puts in countless hours so snowmobilers can have a fun,
safe and memorable ride.
2020 Edgar Hetteen Memorial Award of Merit
– James Lewis, Springfield, Mo.
James Lewis graduated in 1958 from the engineering pro-gram
at LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas. In 1962,
he took a job with Dayco Corporation in Springfield as an ap-plications
engineer. In his career with Dayco, Lewis shared
the honor of having six U.S. patents, including an asymmetric
belt transmission. Then he was granted patents on design ap-plications
built for snowmobile testing and patents for the
design of several types of snowmobile belts. By 1964, during
his time with Dayco, Lewis was working with Polaris Indus-tries
testing and evaluating variable speed drive belts on
their snowmobiles and in 1991, did the same with Bombar-dier.
Lewis was the first engineer to design “Top Cog” belts
for snowmobiles which are today’s standard. Lewis retired
from Dayco in 1992.
Throughout his 30 years at Dayco, Lewis worked with icon-ic
snowmobile legends from Polaris and Arctic Cat, such as
Edgar Hetteen, Allen Hetteen, Bob Eastman, Leroy Lindblad,
Larry Rugland, Roger Skime and Charlie Lofton.
TRAIL TALES
PARILOVV/123RF
36 September 2020 | snowopsmag.com
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