If you ever wanted your company or business logo on a bobsled, now is the time.
That was the gist of the message delivered to the Barrhead Leader by former Barrhead resident and current Canadian Bobsled team-member Melissa Lotholz July 15.
Lotholz has been busy training at the Bobsled facility in Calgary for next year’s Winter Games and said she is seeking local business sponsorship for her team’s bobsled.
“I’m going to have a float in the Blue Heron Fair Days parade I’m hoping to have local businesses involved,” Lotholz said, adding she plans to be at the fairgrounds after the parade for an interactive meet-and-greet and is inviting local businesses to participate financially for advertising.
“I’m very excited! Since I made Canada’s national bobsled team in 2014, it has been hard for me to attend the fair because we are usually having our testing camps around the same time and I haven’t been able to make the parade before now, but everything lined up perfectly and I’m really looking forward to it,” she said.
After the March 2017 Pyeongchang, South Korea-hosted World Cup event in which Lotholz and teammate Kaillie Humphrey’s team placed fifth behind Germany, Canada’s other team and two U.S. teams, Lotholz said she had a few weeks respite before training renewed.
“It wasn’t a lot of time off but you know, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime and it [bobsleigh] has taught me a lot about myself, pushing me in ways I never would have thought possible,” she said, adding she takes her career seriously.
Lotholz said she trains 20 to 25 hours per week.
“That’s not including time spent with other trainers and athletic therapists to get ready for the next session either. It’s a lifestyle and it challenges me,” she said.
Being able to look back over the last four years, Lotholz said it is amazing to have accomplished all she has.
“Bobsleigh has been the catalyst,” she said, adding it is special to her to be able to do a home-town event like the Blue Heron Fair Days fair.
“A lot of my teammates come from big cities and don’t have that same sense of community that I do. Every time I come home, I can feel the support. It’s really encouraging to be doing what I am doing at the level I am and to know it is because of Barrhead, because of 4-H and because of the community I come from,” she said.
Lotholz said interested business owners and can contact her by email at [email protected]
