It was nothing but sunshine, and the sweet sounds of chainsaws along with weedwhackers down in Chester park. The Chester Bowl Improvement Club and Volunteers are cleaning up Chester Bowl this weekend. They are trying to help the chalet get ready for the upcoming winter season, after this year’s summer programs. According to WDIO’s weather team, snow might be here sooner than later.

Sam Luoma says more than 120 people armed with weedwhackers, loppers, and pruners chipped in this weekend. Volunteers cleaning up Chester Bowl helped with clearing brush, trimming branches and weeding out some invasive plants.

“Last year, I think most of us were in shorts and t-shirts. This year, it feels a little bit more like fall,” Luoma said. “All of the volunteers that are here today are part of our winter program. When we have families join us for the winter, they commit to doing volunteer hours with us. A lot of the families are here just helping to chip away at their commitment.”

Kids and parents, classmates and neighbors, a community working together so everyone can enjoy the upcoming ski and snowboard season.

Henry, Gemma, and Oscar are part of CORA, the Community Outreach and Restoration Association. It’s a non-profit lead by middle school and high school students making a difference in the city of Duluth. They wanted to pitch in and help this weekend , because they love skiing at Chester.

“It’s super important to remove the Buckthorn from the hill, because they can’t like bring the snow machines out and make snow for the hill,” Oscar said. “It makes it harder to get enough snow because there will be plants sticking up. It makes it just less good for skiing and snowboarding.”

While this weekend is the big push to prep Chester Bowl, it’s not set in stone when they’ll turn the snow guns on.

“It’s kind of a double edged sword. This time of year, as we’re, getting things ready, the nice weather makes that work a lot more pleasant,” Luoma said. “But, pretty soon we really hope that the temps drop and we can start making snow and open on schedule.”

Chester Bowl is still planning for their scheduled opening day on December 14^th. Although there’s still a lot of work volunteers can help with before it gets too cold outside.