LEWISTON — Snowshoe club members won’t just show off their athletic talent when Lewiston’s last International Snowshoe Convention gets underway Friday night, they’ll model sharp uniforms and distinct colors.
Pageantry, pride and proper team uniforms — complete with sashes and tasseled hats — are a big part of the event.
Teams will get marked for how they look during the snowshoe parade Saturday night, Mirelle Sutton, a Past Time club member and parade organizer, said.
Snowshoe uniform fashion, which has its roots in the Canadian military, includes jackets, sashes and stocking hats. The look resembles a cross between the Royal Canadian Mounted Police uniforms and the Quebec Winter Carnival snowman mascot, the Bonhomme. The uniforms are a throwback to 90 years ago, when Lewiston held its first International Snowshoe Convention.
The uniforms are an important source of pride, Sutton said. “You have to wear your colors so people know where you’re from,” she said. “It’s something we’ve always done. It’s always been a very big thing.”
Often jackets and pants are a solid color, while trim and matching sashes are another color. No two teams have the same colors.
Some of the color combinations are: Past Time club, gray and forest green; Lewiston’s Cavalier Club, brown with pink; Actif of Quebec, red, blue and white; Marquette Lachine of Quebec, green and gold; New Hampshire’s Alpine Club, yellow and purple; Rumford’s La Paresseux, red and blue.
Biddeford’s La Rochambeau’s colors are purple and orange, while Le Boucaniere of Montreal has all-white uniforms outlined with blue. In the parade, Boucaniere members “usually carry a pipe with smoke coming out of it,” Sutton said. “It’s cool.”
In addition to race competition, teams are judged for how they carry themselves in the parade, which begins at 6:30 p.m. Saturday. They are also judged on how they file into formation, their uniforms and how they present themselves. “If they carry snowshoes, they get extra points,” Sutton said.
Convention organizer Arlene Tierney said it’s sad that the snowshoe convention is coming to an end. Through the years, most of the clubs have disappeared. Organizers want to make the last convention a good one “and go out with a bang,” she said.
For decades, the conventions have attracted thousands to Lewiston from all over Canada and the Northeast. The first one in 1925 was hosted by Le Montagnard club, the largest of 17 clubs in Lewiston.
A 1950 video shows snowshoe team after team — each wearing uniforms led by a baton twirler and drummers — marching, snowshoeing, enjoying a “grand” bean supper, presenting keys to the city at ornate ice castles in Kennedy Park, before it was named that, a queen and king coronation ball, and throngs flocking to Saints Peter and Paul Church for Sunday Mass.
This weekend, participating teams will show off their uniforms during the coronation ball, parade and Sunday banquet, but not during races.
Fashion aside, snowshoeing is good exercise “and it’s fun,” Sutton, 63, said. “My last race was at 40.”
At this year’s races, college students from New York will be competing.
Snowshoe clubs from Maine, New York, New Hampshire and Canada will attend the convention.
International Snowshoe Convention schedule
Friday, Feb. 6
7 p.m.: Convention begins with opening ceremonies and coronation ball at the Ramada Inn. A king and queen will be chosen.
Saturday, Feb. 7
9 a.m.: Snowshoe walking demonstration with all teams at Lewiston High School.
1 p.m.: Snowshoe races at Lewiston High School.
6:30 p.m.: Snowshoe parade at the Ramada Inn.
Sunday, Feb. 8
11 a.m.: Banquet and closing ceremony, trophies and awards given at the Ramada Inn.
The public is welcome to all events except Sunday’s closing banquet, which requires registration.
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