NORWAY – The Rowe Elementary School will have 40 new pairs of cross country skis for its students, courtesy of a $6,000 donation from the Stephens Memorial Hospital Foundation.

“I’ve asked for 40 pairs of cross country skis with poles and boots. They’re on order at Carter’s (Farm Market and X-C Ski Center) in Oxford,” said pediatrician and mother Jill Gabrielsen, who is on the hospital staff.

Gabrielsen said the additional skis will allow the after-school cross country ski program for students in grade four through six to be expanded to include kindergarten through grade three students.

“I put in my request for the cross country skis because of my interest in keeping children active,” said Gabrielsen, who has expressed concern about the high rate of childhood obesity. Gabrielsen, who also takes students to the local skating rink for after-school activity, said cross country skiing is for all ages and is relatively cheap.

Several dozen students ski on trails at the Paris Hill home of Gabrielsen’s fellow Stephens Memorial doctor, Russell Florenz and his wife, Judy, who is an educational technician at Rowe Elementary School. Both Florenz and his wife, along with volunteers, take children out on the trails after school each week.

“They’ve done it for years,” Gabrielsen said. “He grooms all the trails himself.”

Florenz said the program for the fourth- through sixth-grade students was funded by a grant from Healthy Oxford Hills through the Oxford Hills Booster Club.

Gabrielsen said she hopes the program for younger students will begin in March.