8236-R1_MSA_January2023

Aroostook County will be Collaborating with WAGM for Another Season of “Sledding the County” By Mike McNulty

B ack in 2017, I had ideas running around in my head. About how to promote everything that makes snowmobiling in Aroostook County so good. The people that volunteer across the 34 clubs here in the County, along with the landowners and business partners. So I asked my good friend and former WAGM TV meteo rologist Anthony Macari if he thought, it would be something the station would be interested in doing. Anthony was able to set a meeting with management at the station and they believed my concept had merit. The Fifth Season of “Sledding the County” is currently in production! As you can see in one of the pictures, WAGM was picked as the 2020 Supporting Business of the Year. For the excel lent job we have done spreading the word of the MSA and the sport of snowmobiling to the viewers of the County and Western New Brunswick. I have to admit I never imagined I would like being involved in the process of putting this segment together each week. But I really do enjoy coming up with story ideas and then getting all parties together at the location the segment will be shot so it not only works for who we interview but for WAGM as well. We try very hard to produce relevant mate rial that showcases how much fun snowmo biling can be and how the sport gives back to the communities. Along with segments that effect the sport like when the Covid pandemic hit and recently the soaring fuel prices, which made things very difficult on all County clubs. We also dedicated one segment each season

to the MSA! So our viewers can hear directly from MSA officials on all things snowmobiling around the state. Another part of doing this that I love is the feedback we get from viewers as well as the businesses that we’ve had on the segment. It’s very cool to hear someone say “Great job” - well done, we watch it every week. Or when a business says the have had customers say they saw the segment and would be willing to be interviewed again. And yes I even enjoy the negative comments! Because we know, no one is perfect and there is always room for improvement. Now it’s time to say thank you to a few peo ple that deserve recognition. First of course is the management at WAGM TV in Presque Isle for listening and making my dream come true, Anthony Macari, Stephen Durham, and currently Brian Bouchard are the gentlemen whom have brought the segment into your liv ing room since January of 2018. Thanks to all of the people, we have interviewed over the years. I especially want to thank your MSA Northern Region V.P. Matt Stedman. Matt has been a steady go to source for interviews and I really appreciate his time and willingness to help. Well folks I could go on and on about “Sled ding the County” but I don’t want to over stay my welcome. In closing, I invite everyone who reads this to check out the segment for your self. I hope you enjoy it as much as I like mak ing it happen!

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