By Chrissy Prichard

Express News Staff

Dave and Debbie Langworthy of Thendara have been chosen as the King and Queen to reign over the Old Forge Winter Carnival this year. The carnival is scheduled to take place Friday, Feb. 3, through Sunday, Feb. 5.

Carnival weekend will kick off in town with a parade and ice skating party Friday night. McCauley Mountain will host snowshoe races, torchlight skiing, daredevil jumping, fireworks, and the Coronation of the King and Queen on Saturday, followed by the Snowflake Derby ski races and cardboard sled races on Sunday.

The Langworthys have attended countless winter carnival events over the years. Dave has lived in the area since 1976, and Debbie moved here in 1985 when the two got married. They both enjoyed long teaching careers at the town of Webb School, where Debbie taught elementary classes and Dave taught technology and driver education classes. They both retired in recent years and are enjoying their time with each other now that they don’t have kids and jobs to tie them down.

The couple has four grown sons, Greg, Kirk, Joel and Luke. Kirk lives in Old Forge with his wife Meagan and their three year old son, Cole; Joel lives in Saratoga Springs; Greg and his wife Kim live in San Diego; Luke and his wife Katie live in Raleigh, N.C., with their sons Kaydin and Chase.

Winter has always been a busy time for the Langworthys. Growing up, Greg and Joel were Nordic skiers and Kirk and Luke skied downhill. They were involved in both the Polar Bear Ski teams and the school ski teams for many years. Dave and Debbie spent many years volunteering at local ski races and traveling to other mountains to cheer their kids on. Along the way, the couple enjoyed spending time with the local ski parents, as well as those they met from other mountains.

Carnival weekend was always something their family looked forward to when their boys were younger. “We used to go to it all the time when our kids were growing up. We always loved the cardboard sled races, and it was always fun to see the little kids race in the snowflake derby,” says Debbie. “I always like to see the ice castle, that’s pretty neat too.”

“They used to get so excited about doing the torchlight skiing,” she says. “That was the highlight of their whole weekend. They always wanted us to watch that.”

“Kirk jumped through a hoop of open flames one year,” recalls Dave.

Dave and Debbie recognize how important it is get out and enjoy what winter brings.

“To me its just such a nice community event. It gets all the kids out and the families out to really enjoy the winter,” says Debbie. “It gives everybody something to look forward to. It gives the kids a goal, to make their cardboard sleds, to do their racing. There’s so much camaraderie. It’s a community event that’s lasted forever, which is a nice thing about a being in a small town.”

Dave and Debbie will be taking over the reign of last year’s king and queen, Jim and Margaret Vandelinder. Debbie recalls spending a lot of time on the ski hill with the Vandelinders, whose son Brian raced with Kirk for many years. The Langworthys expect to be back on the ski race circuit soon enough, since their grandson Cole is now learning to ski.

Although the couple is retired, they still keep busy in the community. Debbie is a member of the Northwoods Women’s Club, and Dave is an ambulance driver for the fire department. They are also both very active members of Niccolls Church.

They have enjoyed being retired and having more time to spend with each other.

“When we first met, we both had kids already, so we jumped right into family life. We never really had all this time together in the beginning,” says Debbie. “It’s like we’re dating,” she laughs.

Although they have been doing some traveling in their retirement, they have no plans to move to a warmer climate and leave winter behind. “I really like all four seasons. It think it would be boring without winter,” says Debbie.