Bergman Fights to Keep Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame in Ishpeming

Ishpeming, June 5, 2025
This week, Rep. Jack Bergman sent a letter to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) and the Michigan Arts and Culture Council (MACC) admonishing them for their decision to disqualify the National Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame and Museum in Ishpeming from receiving critical grant funding from the state of Michigan.

The National Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame and Museum has been a cornerstone of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula tourism economy and a guardian of winter sports history for nearly three-quarters of a century.

In the letter, Rep. Bergman emphasized the cultural and economic importance of the institution, stating, “Located in Ishpeming – the birthplace of organized skiing in America – the Museum has, for nearly 75 years, contributed to the cultural and economic vitality of Michigan through its preservation of our state’s rich snowsports heritage and its promotion of tourism to the Upper Peninsula.”

“The Museum’s 2025–2026 grant application to MACC was recently disqualified due to what appears to have been a minor, unexplainable discrepancy in its Unique Entity Identifier (UEI). Although the Museum’s UEI was copied directly from SAM.gov into the Michigan SmartSimple portal utilized by MACC for this grant, a single character variation occurred in which the letter ‘Z’ was recorded as a ‘2’ – resulting in the UEI being submitted as ‘W1KCYK2JBAH6’ instead of ‘W1KCYKZJBAH6.’ Unfortunately, this discrepancy was not flagged at the time of submission, ultimately leading to the application’s disqualification.”

Rep. Bergman urged both MACC and MEDC to reconsider the application, adding, “Given the unique and irreplaceable role the Museum plays in preserving and promoting Michigan’s snowsports heritage — and the fact that other entities with similar clerical discrepancies reportedly received successful appeals — I urge both MACC and MEDC to reassess the Museum’s application and explore every possible option to provide support. Whether through grant reconsideration, administrative flexibility, or alternate funding sources, a solution must be found.”
 You can read the full letter here.