Bluewood’s New Managers Boost Mountain’s Schedule

DAYTON - On the eve of Ski Bluewood's 2012 open- ing, the resort's owners have hired new managers to run the mountain and get it better known in the region. With more snow in the forecast this week and into the weekend,

Ski Bluewood looks poised to open at 10 a.m. on Friday, the new managers said this week.

WWG Ski, the Tri-Cities- based group that bought Ski Bluewood more than two years ago, has hired Jody and Brandy Ream, a veteran ski industry couple from the Midwest to become the re- sort's general manager and director of business develop- ment respectively.

One of the Reams' first moves is to put Thursday back on Bluewood's weekly schedule, thus creating a four-day operation instead of the three-day arrangement announced several weeks ago. This means the number of days the mountain is open is re- duced by just one day from previous years when it was open Wednes- days too. Daily hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Jody Ream, who takes over from Travis Stephenson as general manager, has more than a decade and a half of experience running ski and snowboard mountains in Indiana and Ohio, where resorts can only operate with artificial snow.

Ream, who has a Bach- elor's degree in sports mar- keting and management from Indiana University, started his career at Paoli Peaks in south Indiana, where he began skiing when he was 13 and signed on as manager in the mid 1980s.

In 2001, he became general manager of Boston Mills Brandywine, a resort in Can- ton, Ohio (south of Cleve- land), and stayed there for a decade. In 1997, Ream was certified as a Level 3 alpine ski instructor and last year, he won the SAMMY award given out by Ski Area Management, a ski mountain resort industry group, for op- erational excellence.

"Jody is passionate about the sport and truly believes it's his responsibility to cre- ate lifelong participants," said one of the industry peers who nominated him for the award. "He leads with pas- sion, dedication, drive, re- spect, dignity and grace."

His wife Brandy Ream, who graduated from Indiana University with a Bachelor's in elementary education, started her career in the ski business as a hospitality staff manager at Paoli Peaks before becoming that resort's sales and marketing director in 1997, the year the couple got married.

At Boston Mills/ Brandewyn, she signed on as director of business opera- tions and development when tions and development when Jody became general manager there.

"We're very excited to come to Bluewood and be a part of the community," Brandy Ream said. "We flew in in October and fell in love (with Dayton) within moments. It just felt right."

The Reams have two kids, an eight-year-old son and a six-year-old daughter, who are both learning to ski and were impressed by Bluewood's abundance of natural snow, Brandy Ream said. "There were definitely some wide eyes and dropping chins."

The couple wants to do even more than co-owners Mike and Kelly Stephen- son did to make the moun- tain family friendly. Brandy Ream said they'll aggres- sively go after group business with rates that are now $29 for group member tickets and they'll emphasize terrain park skiing.

"We want everyone to have a top notch experience every day," she said.

This year, that experi- ence may start this weekend. The new managers said the mountain has plenty higher- elevation snow but is still waiting for powder at the lodge.

"Things look really good at the top," she said. "The base area is presenting some challenges right now, but we may be able to move snow around with the cats."

Bluewood co-owner Mike Stephenson, who spearheaded the takeover from Stan and Nancy Goodell with his son Travis and his wife Kelly, remains a director and instructor at the resort.