The White Lake Ski Heels will serve as grand marshals for the White Lake Water Festival Parade Saturday, and will hold a reunion Saturday at the Municipal Building from 1-3 p.m. Memorabilia from the Heels' three decades on the Lake will be on display.
"We've contacted over 10 families," said Caroline Godwin, a former Ski Heel and one of the event organizers. "We hope we'll have a good turnout of former members."
The water ski team was possibly the first of its kind in the sate, according to Tom Riel, a former Ski Heel.
"We had a great time," Riel said. "It was a good group, and we all loved competition skiing."
Riel said members of the club demonstrated their skills all over the state and in a number of foreign countries. They also brought home several championships.
The Ski Heels competed from 1971 to 1997. The team had a ramp at White Lake, and when they were not on the road, members were regularly found practicing on the lake.
The group also sponsored hang gliding competitions at the lake. The gliders were towed behind motorboats, and competitors judged on distance, technique and speed.
The first color photograph ever published in the Bladen Journal was one of Ski Heel Tommy Faircloth on a delta wing glider at a team event at the lake.
Faircloth's sister, Cathy Kinlaw, is also a former Ski Heel and is helping organize the reunion.
"A lot of us remember our days as Ski Heels as the best times of our lives," Kinlaw said.
The group regularly put on demonstrations as well as competing.
"We skied at Azalea Festival, the Shrimp Festival, Camp Lejeune, all over," Kinlaw said. "We even skied through downtown Fayetteville on the Cape Fear River."
Riel, a member of the White Lake Town Council, recently asked for the town's assistance in placing a display case at the town hall for some of the team's trophies.
"These are a part of the town's history and heritage," Riel said.
Members of the team will ride in Saturday's parade on boats representing the 1970's, 1980's, and 1990's.
Godwin said the group has assembled a wide variety of Ski Heels memorabilia, most of which will be on display Saturday.
"We're excited about this," she said. "This will be a time to reminisce. A lot of people don't even know White Lake had a competition ski team."
Saturday's exhibit at the Town Hall is free and will be open to the public. For more information about the reunion, call 862-3218.
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