For a first year club in the curling world, the Walker Curling Club had a tremendous year! For a small town of only 1,000 people, we had 64 Founding Members and over a hundred participants who curled at one time or another in three draws every Saturday night. We also had over a hundred kids that curled in a youth program that we affectionally called, "Kids Rock!"

We began our program with two clinics on the mechanics of the sport of curling and were blessed with the support of experienced curlers from Bemidji and Brainerd, who were generous enough to come to Walker and help us get started. Kevin Madsen from the Wadena Club came to our new arena and painted our houses and also painted eight logos on the ice of local restaurants who gave us financial support.

We had three bonspiels throughout the year - a "New Years Bonspiel", where we had rinks from Park Rapids, Brainerd and even as far away as St. Paul, who, by the way, won the event. We also had a special bonspiel for the draw that curled late on Saturday night, that we appropriately called, "The Late-Nite Bonspiel". The largest bonspiel was held at the end of the season, where 24 rinks participated in a "Moondance Bonspiel".

Our club is extremely grateful that the committee of the new Walker Area Community Center permitted us to use their ice and facilities and have also given us permission to build a clubroom someday. We are also thankful for the financial support of the various businesses in the Walker Area that helped us in many ways throughout the year.

Our challenge this year is to keep this tremendous success going and we cordially invite anybody interested in the sport of curling to join us for the 2008-2009 season.