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ISHA News: Skiing History Week in Austria, Perkins Endowment

Jann & Chuck Perkins

Plans Shaping up for Skiing History Week in Austria

Photo top: Jann and Chuck Perkins, founders of Vermont’s Alpine Shop, have endowed ISHA’s annual awards program, honoring the best works of history in film, books and other media formats.

Plans are firming up for ISHA’s first international event outside North America in April 2027. The annual Awards Banquet will be held at the Lechwelten Center in Lech-am-Arlberg on April 12. Related events begin with a welcome reception on April 6 and finish up with the Historians’ Colloquium on April 13.

The week’s headquarters will be the Madlochblick (madlochblick.at/en/), a charming hotel with a spa, fitness room and indoor pool with panoramic views: it will offer preferable
pricing to the ISHA group. With a ski-in/ski-out location
directly on the piste in the old Walser quarter, the hotel is just a four-minutes walk from the Lechwelten Center.

Discounted airfares are available through flightsugar.com. For full information on booking hotel, air and ground travel, see the links at skiinghistory.org/events. Please join us!

Chuck and Jann Perkins Underwrite Awards Program

 

Retired Vermont retailers Chuck and Jann Perkins have donated a generous endowment to support ISHA’s annual Perkins Awards Program. “This spectacular gift will generate revenue to support the awards program in perpetuity,” says ISHA Chairman Rick Moulton. “The board of directors is profoundly grateful to Chuck and Jann for their prescient generosity.”

Fundraising Campaign in Full Swing

We owe the continuing vigor of Skiing History to the passionate support of our readers. Paid circulation of the magazine has grown 50 percent since its low point during the Covid shutdown, which constitutes a welcome vote of confidence in our mission to popularize the culture and heritage of our sport.

ISHA runs on the passion, commitment and willingness of our individual members and corporate sponsors to offer financial support. In 2025, membership dues and magazine sales offset 18 percent of our annual budget; member donations paid 49 percent of our expenses (the remainder was covered by corporate sponsorships and investment revenue). Your generous support enabled:

  • The annual museum grant program of $5,000, encouraging local museums to create new exhibits and programs.
  • The annual ISHA Awards Program and Banquet, which promotes the publication of original research in skiing history, and related events, including a vintage fashion show and the John Fry Lecture.
  • Six issues each year of Skiing History, where an expanded editorial budget enabled us to enlist more regular contributions from your favorite writers. Your donations also helped us meet the challenge of fast-rising costs for postage and printing.
  • Ongoing oral history videos published on the website.
     

As you may know, postal rates will rise again this year, and printing costs will go up about 5 percent, depending on the volatile price of paper. Please help us meet these increased costs. Recall that ISHA is a 501(c)3 public charity, eligible to receive donations from family foundations. Gifts are tax deductible in the U.S. Please use the envelope inserted in this magazine or go to skiinghistory.org/donate.

You’ve set new charitable-giving records in each of the last 10 years. Let’s keep it up. 

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