Soup's on for frigid race volunteers

Photo by Bret Hartman, Vail Daily News

Veronica Whitney
December 3, 2004
Vail Daily News

BEAVER CREEK - On zero-degree days, World Cup racers competing at the Birds of Prey race course here warm up by skiing 80 mph.

But hundreds of volunteers, who will be standing on the hill in the cold from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. this week, need a little help from Lauren Williams - also known among the more than 200 volunteers working at the races as the "soup lady."

It's noon Wednesday, and after being on the hill since 9 a.m. enduring frigid temperatures, Jim Cahill is ready for some lunch - and what's better than a broccoli cheddar soup on a bone-chilling day on the hill.

"It hit the spot. I've been out since 9 a.m. It was 3 degrees this morning," says Cahill, an Avon resident, while eating his soup by the volunteer's tent near the Red Tail Camp. "I have one piece of broccoli I have to finish here. It really gets you warmed up."

When lunchtime comes, all volunteers helping at the Birds of Prey World Cup flock to the volunteer tent where Williams, 49, a real estate broker from Ventura, Calif., has about 125 soup servings waiting for them. In addition to the soup, there are sandwiches and chips.

"The idea came up when, three years ago, a hotel supplied chili for two days and then didn't do it anymore and everybody was really upset," says Williams, who has volunteered here for the past three years. "It takes about 2 1/2 hours to make it. The soup comes from a package and I enhance it with vegetables."

Williams' has six varieties of soup on her menu - chicken noodle, tortilla, Santa Fe chipotle, potato cheese, tomato bisque and chili.

"We never have enough," Williams says. "I don't have a big enough pot, that's the problem. They're never any leftovers."

Helping Williams in the soup kitchen is Jenny Caron, a volunteer from Maryland.

"I've seen lots of soup and lots of very hungry, hard-working volunteers," she says. "Lauren has boundless energy. She's the first one here and the last one here washing pots and she's always moving every moment in between."

Williams' volunteer work won't end this Sunday when the races end. Next month, she'll go with a group of friends to Europe to volunteer at the World Cup in Bormio, Italy. She plans to come back next winter to Beaver Creek and then volunteer for the Winter Olympics in Italy in 2006.

"We have an international group of people who go together to the World Cup races. It's almost become family," she says. "We travel around the world and it's a way to be involved and root for American skiers."

Dick Pownall, of Vail, who has been running the volunteer crew since 1985, says volunteers are very appreciative of Williams' soups.

"It adds a touch - more than soup," he says. "It has added an element to the lunch that wasn't there before. It has turned into a kind of a bonding."

Janelle Evans, a second year volunteer from Utah, says her favorite soup is the broccoli cheese. "All volunteers love it," she says. "They come down and there's something warm waiting for them."

Sitting on a bench next to the volunteer tent, Kent Everett is slurping the last traces of his soup.

"It's terrific," says Everett, 59, of Vail. "Lauren fixes good soup and it's great to have something hot. It warms your insides and gets you going."