POCATELLO - Most people center their annual shindigs around the holidays. Heath Mann, however, is unique in the event he chooses to celebrate above all others.

For the sixth year, his family will be hosting a celebration tonight in conjunction with the annual screening of the new Warren Miller ski movie.

Idaho State University's Cooperative Wilderness Handicapped Outdoor Group has the exclusive rights to show the local premier and raises a few thousand dollars each year through ticket sales to support outdoor activities for disabled sportsmen. Warren Miller's 60th movie, called "Dynasty," will be shown at 1 p.m., at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. today in the Bengal Theater. Tickets are $9 in advance and $11 at the door, and prizes will be given away at each showing.

In past years, Mann's friends have booked a bus for the occasion, used to transport party-goers to and from the ski movie. Mann's tradition is to always show the previous year's Warren Miller movie at his party - last year, he pulled out all of the stops and projected the show on an outside wall of his house.

"As we continue to go through the Warren Miller years, I just want it to be a party where if you love the snow and the winter sports season, you come to this party," said Mann, who runs a bicycle shop out of his garage and serves on the Pebble Creek Ski Patrol. "It's a time I can get both my friends from bicycling in the summer and my friends from skiing together. For me it's the annual kickoff of the snow sports season."

It's also important to Mann that the proceeds from the Warren Miller show support a good cause.

His party ends at 9 p.m. so people can make it to the theater on time.

"We all get to live the dream of watching athletes ski stuff that we're sure in our minds we could ski," Mann said, laughing after he finished the statement. "Of course, we wouldn't."

C.W. Hog Outdoor Recreation Coordinator Bob Ellis said his organization has showed the Warren Miller premier for the past 15 years.

Prizes that will be given out include snowboards from Surf's Up, goggles, ski poles, other equipment, and lift passes from Jackson Hole, Big Sky Montana, Pebble Creek, Kelly Canyon, Sun Valley and Bogus Basin. One person will also be drawn from each showing for a grand prize drawing - a Warren Miller ski trip.

"There's lots of cheering, lots of 'oohs' and 'aahs,'" Ellis said of the crowd reaction to the annual Miller movie. "People are usually pretty excited. I saw the first two minutes of the (new) movie and it got my blood boiling."

Starting in mid-January, Ellis said C.W. Hog will start its adaptive ski school program, which provides equipment and training to help disabled athletes hit the slopes. A few times each week, Ellis said the program also sends staff to Pebble Creek Ski Area in Inkom to provide accommodations for disabled junior high school students on class ski trips.

"Every now and then we'll get somebody who really catches on with it and take it as far as they can," Ellis said. "We've had people go to the Paralympics."