Samantha Schlenker daughter of Ron & Linda Schlenker and a
member of the Poinsett Pounders was named Youth snowmobiler
of the year at our annual SDSA Convention. Samantha has been
to Sno cross in Deadwood,attends club meetings, sells SDSA raffle
tickets, and worked at this year’s state convention.
Samantha also helps put in and take out MILES of trail every
year!

Johnny, Audrey, Ada, and Annie Rider were named Family of
the year.
Audrey and Johnny are YETIS advisors and helped get YETIS
started in SD with a proposal to the board in 2016. Johnny
was on the SDSA board as District 7 director for 3 years until
having to resign summer 2019 due to a major career change
and needed to devote time to get that started.
. Attend club events and helped with bean bag tournaments in
Bryant, membership drive, and we participate in the
Governor’s Games activities and poker run every year. As a
family we help promote and participate in many different
community fundraisers to help our local communities some
organizations we help with include fire department,
Afterschool program, church camp fundraisers, etc.
: At the club level and state level we have helped promote paying
the membership dues to help keep trails open and have gotten friends to join different clubs. As a family we have enjoyed helping
out SDSA in the Sno-cross booth the past 2 years and encouraged friends and local legislators to attend Governor’s ride. We bring our
2 girls along to the Sno-cross and Governor’s rides and they ride along so they get to see the full experience of what it is like to have a
big snowmobile family. On the national level Johnny and Audrey attended ISC in Rapid City in 2016.
: We have snowmobiled for the past 5 years and we have really made it a family affair. Our family has been responsible the past 2
years to put up and take down 8 miles of trail marking that goes up to Henry and past our house. We spend a weekend working on it
together and then get to ride our snowmobiles on it. With Johnny as a director we have all promoted the SDSA events and participated
in convention the past 3 years, along with Governor’s rides. We have helped the 2 girls learn how to ride their snowmobiles and we
love to go use the trails in Black Hills during the winter where we have a cabin.
We are always doing activities with our other club members such as camping, club activities, getting together for Sunday Fundays etc.
and we are always encouraging the younger generations that come to our club events to join the club and get involved in the snowmobiling
family. Johnny and Audrey are really promoting club/state membership with the YETIS as it really bring the kids that enjoy
snowmobiling together throughout the state and they can get together at convention and governor’s ride and hang out together and
get to participate in leadership activities

Jay has been a member of the Town and Country Snowdrifters and
SDSA for 21 years.
Jay has been an active member of our local club for many years,
attending meetings and club events. Jay served as club President for
six years and most recently was elected as the club Reporter. During his
tenure, he was instrumental in the purchase of a new groomer and grant
application in 2017. Additionally, he helped design and secure different
clothing orders for the club members to help promote the club in both
2016 and 2018. He has continued to help organize, and design the Four
Lakes Trail System. He and his family install the section of trail that
loops from Lake Preston to Oldham and back to Arlington. (He will help
install other trails this year due to excess water in the ditches.) Jay
helped with our annual Poker Run chairing our advertising committee
and provided on-site coordination (food, card dealing and prizes) and
the PA system. He participated in the 2006 and 2010 Governor’s Ride
by being a group leader and helping with the lunch and the social back at the hotel. Jay helped with our club’s Safety Program in
2011 and 2015 training youth about proper protocols for riding snowmobiles. Jay has actively solicited businesses for auction and
door prize items and graciously accepted a volunteer nomination to help with entertainment at the 2008 SDSA Convention hosted by
our club. Jay has also helped promote the club by helping with the float in the Arlington Days Parade. Jay was also a committee
member and an active organizer of the JHORA annual fundraiser event. In 2006, Jay and his family, Michelle and sons Jacob, Taylor
and Caden, were selected as SDSA’s Snowmobile Family of the Year.
Jay actively sells SDSA’s 50-50 tickets, and UTV or Everyone Wins tickets for our club and SDSA. Additionally, he sells his share of
the clubs Monday Night Football Books which are used to fund youth scholarships. He supports ACSA by purchasing one of their
calendar raffle tickets. That investment paid off in 2008 when he won a 2009 Apex Mountain Sled. As a member of the Oldham Fire
Department, Jay helps with their Wild Game Feed, a fundraiser for the Department. Jay has been Co-Chairman of the Oldham
Potato Days, a local festival. In the past the committee has been able to raise approximately $5,000 a year so that the community
can enjoy the whole day, free of charge. Most recently, he helped sell tickets for the Oldham Fire Department Gun Giveaway in support
of Mark Hojer’s benefit. In addition, he helped sponsor items for this events silent and live auction.
Jay participates in club activities and meetings. He signs 31 miles of trail. Jay has taken his children to safety courses and has also
been a course instructor. Jay continues to support other clubs poker runs through either his attendance or by pre-purchasing hands
for the runs, indicating support for their activities. He has attended SDSA’s Governor’s Ride, both hosted by our club and participated
by being a group leader, serving lunch and assisting with the evening social. He has attended SDSA Board Meetings and served as
a delegate numerous times at the SDSA Annual Convention, along with attending the Governor’s Advisory Council Meetings.
Additionally, he is also holds local club memberships in the Dakota Drifters and Poinsett Pounder clubs.
.At a very young age, Jay’s family acquired their first used Rupp snowmobile and he and his brother’s pulled each other on sleds,
car hoods and inner tubes. This family tradition carries on today and is being passed on to Jay’s sons, Jacob, Taylor and Caden.
Just a few years ago, Jay’s family surprised his parents on their 45th wedding anniversary when they all joined them in the Black
Hills. In total, there were 21 sleds lined up to take off for the trail ride, but only after a safety review of the rules of the trail. That too,
the safety review, a family tradition. He continues to ride with family and most recently, helped his father participate in the Dakota
Drifters Snowmobile club in the Brookings area along with his nieces and nephews.
They like to give their children’s friends snowmobile rides and hope they will talk their parents into catching the snowmobile bug too.
With young children, it is hard to travel a long distance to ride so they have to take advantage of the snow when it does fall East
River. On a recent trip to the Black Hills, Jay was accompanied by friends from the Twin Cities that had never been to the Hills
before. These family members have since continued to work to join Jay and friends on their annual “guys trip” to the BigHorns and
loved being a part of this experience as able. Based upon that experience, these friends will return.
This family always talks positively of snowmobiling and tells people about our club activities and services provided by the Town and
County Snowdrifters. For example the warming shelter that sits on the trail close to their farm, the rescue sled, groomer and drag
and our planned poker runs. As indicated, Jay was raised snowmobiling and he looks forward to it every year. This cannot be more
evident when he came up with the latest logo for the club…”It’s in the DNA” with a picture of a thumbprint and a snowmobile on top
of it.
It was Jay’s initial thought and his motion that led our club to purchase and install signs on our trail advertising the club’s sponsorship
of the trail and to promote membership. These signs will be placed at high traffic areas on our trail. It is ideas like this and his
genuine enthusiasm about snowmobiling and what our club is all about that allows Jay to talk positive about snowmobiling to people
in all facets of his community and church involvement. Invitations are extended for club meetings and group snowmobile rides to
members and non-members alike. Last year he was successful in gaining three new members who are younger and members of our
local community.

Audrey is a member of the Poinsett Pounders Snowmobile Club. At the club level and state level she has helped promote paying the membership
dues to help keep trails open and has gotten friends to join the Brookings club and support SDSA.
On the state level she is representing snowmobiling a lot by promoting YETIS and teaching them leadership skills that they can take back
to their clubs and promote to their friends and keep snowmobiling and memberships active in our state.
She has helped promote SDSA by helping in the Sno-cross booth the past 2 years and encouraged friends and local legislators to attend
Governor’s ride. On the national level she attended ISC in Rapid City in 2016 and and has made sure we have YETIS representation at
the ISC events as they will be the future of our organization.
Audrey says” I have snowmobiled with my family for the past 5 years and we have really made it a family affair. I have helped the past
2 years put in and take down 8 miles of trail marking with my 2 girls and husband that goes up to Henry and past our house. I have promoted
the SDSA events and participated in convention the past 3 years, along with Governor’s rides. I have helped my 2 girls learn how
to ride their snowmobiles and we love to go use the trails in Black Hills during the winter where we have a cabin. “
Congratulations Audrey!