A GROUP of volunteers have got together to prepare a city ski slope for reopening.

The ski slope at Alpine Snowsports Southampton was in need of some hard work before the weekend after months of not being used due to the pandemic meant that it was overgrown and damaged.

The Southampton Area Ski Association (SASA) uses the ski slope for its club and it got a group of volunteers together in order to prepare the slope for use once again.

Mike Barnes, a member of the association and a parent of one of the club members said: “We put it out on Facebook just asking the club members for help, and they responded.

“I think we had over 30 people turn up on Saturday throughout the day.

“We managed to do all of the jobs that the staff simply would not have time to do.

“We went in there and we strimmed and hedge cut and weeded and cleaned up and got rid of all of the rubbish.”

The team of volunteers was made up of mostly parents and young members of the ski club and were working from about 9am Saturday morning, at about 4pm to get the ski slope back to normal.

Mike added: “There was a lovely sense of the community there, it was really nice.

“You don’t often get chance to say thank you.

“The staff spend there spend their lives, teaching our children, whether it’s raining or snowing or freezing cold, they never complain, they’re always smiling and they do their job brilliantly. so the idea that we can give back to them and make their life a little bit easier is just a lovely thing.

“We achieved everything that we had set out to and the place looks as good as I’ve seen it in many many

years.”

Alpine Snowsports is run by a charity called Active Nation.

Karen Platt, the venue manager said: “For us we are overjoyed and really grateful that the slope looks nice.

“It would have been very difficult for just our team if we hadn’t of had that help.

The slope is now all ready for the reopening on Saturday September 12.

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