CVA skier DiGravio earns nod Maine Warden Service gets gift of ‘T.K. Cam’

Alison DiGravio of Farmington spent the winter on the road, logging close to 50,000 miles while traveling across the nation to mogul competitions.

The Carrabassett Valley Academy junior’s efforts have paid off, as she has been named to the U.S. Ski Team’s Developmental Group based on her performances.

That assignment will give her the chance to train with the U.S. Ski Team.

“Making the Development Group means a lot to me. I’m happy with how I skied this year, and that the hard work is paying off,” DiGravio said in a CVA news release.

According to her father, Ron DiGravio, who is also her CVA coach, Alison is the fourth CVA mogul skier in the last four years to be named to either the U.S. Ski Team or Development Team.

“Her brother Dave has been on the [U.S.] Ski Team for three years now,” Ron DiGravio said. “That can bring some added pressure but she’s been able to deal with the pressure and now she’s cutting her own path.”

CVA is a co-educational boarding school for grades eight through postgraduate. Over the past 25 years, CVA has produced 10 Olympians, 71 national titles, 16 NCAA and USCSA All-Americans, 25 national team members and six world champions.

Warden service receives gift

The Maine Warden Service Dive Team has received a generous gift of underwater camera and surveillance equipment from the family and friends of Thomas W. Kopp, the late dean of admissions at Colby College.

Kopp drowned Nov. 10, 2007, when the aluminum skiff he, his son and three grandsons were in flipped over on Great Pond in Belgrade.

Kopp was found in the pond the next day by his son, Blaine, who used similar underwater camera equipment to assist the Dive Team in its efforts to find his father.

Blaine Kopp introduced the equipment to divers, and over the last few months a friendship has formed to share ideas on how to use technology to improve search and recovery missions, particularly those that occur in dark, frigid waters where numerous underwater obstacles such as logs and boulders pose hazards.

Nancy Morrione, associate dean of admissions at Colby College, heard of how Blaine located his father by using the underwater camera system and decided to collect funds to purchase the technological gear for the warden service.

The underwater camera equipment, valued at $3,500, will be an integral part of the Maine Warden Service Dive Team’s operations when it is called to perform search and recovery missions throughout the state.

It includes an underwater camera/scope, a recorder, GPS unit and other documentation tools. The camera/scope is capable of surveying underwater landscapes in most situations, including dark waters when visibility by the human eye is limited to inches.

The camera is being named the “T.K. Cam” by the Dive Team in remembrance of Kopp.