Bridgton Easy Riders Snowmobile Club has been named Snowmobile Club of the Year by the Maine Snowmobile Association.

Club Correspondent Bill Preis accepted the award at the Annual MSA Directors Meeting in Brewer on Saturday April 29; 288 clubs were considered for this honor.

The Bridgton Easy Riders Club was also recognized for being the eighth largest snowmobile club in the State of Maine, with 167 members. The Club has doubled its membership in the past five years. Bridgton Easy Riders also sold the second largest number of annual Super Raffle Tickets in the state, helping to raise money for snowmobiling around Maine.

The honor of being chosen Snowmobile Club of the Year is especially meaningful as the Bridgton Easy Riders celebrates its 50-year anniversary.

There have been many changes since the Club started. Back then, trails were groomed by dragging metal bed springs behind snowmobiles, but today the Bridgton Easy Riders owns a fleet of three Tucker Groomers with heavy-duty hydraulic drags that can lay down a white carpet of snow at least eight feet wide on 67 miles of trails.

The Club also produces the Lakes Region Snowmobile 500-mile Trail Map, which includes the nine surrounding towns. The Club had two successful snowmobile trips, this year, to Millinocket in February and Caribou in March.

All Club work, including trail maintenance, signing, and grooming, is done by hard-working volunteers. President Blaine Chapman, V.P. Bob Corthell, and Trail Master Steve Brill, the trail crew, and all the volunteers who work in many capacities deserve enormous credit for the Club’s success. The building and maintaining of a trail system is expensive, paid for by memberships, fundraisers, and grants.

“We want to thank the Town of Bridgton, the snowmobiling community, and the members of the Bridgton Easy Riders for their tremendous support. The Bridgton Easy Rivers is an active, growing, hard-working, fun-loving Club that likes to ride,” Preis said.

Bridgton Easy Riders meet the second Friday of each month from September through April, at Bridgton Community Center. The Fabulous Pot Luck Supper at 6 p.m. is followed by the business meeting at 6:45 p.m. Information, videos and photos of many past Club activities can be found on the Bridgton Easy Riders Facebook page.