Well here we are in our 21st year of Volkssporting, and I'm still leading the club. We've enjoyed a lot of active growth and attracted a lot of great new people to our sport. We've held our first event already this year. It was a pretty good event too--in spite of the huge amount of snow we received. The day was great for walking, and those of us who joined the German fest activities enjoyed the great entertainment and excellent German food--the vendors were great too. We had 35 participants--so lets beat that number at the next event. "Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it."

Congratulations to those of you who have sent in full record books. We salute the following: Kitty Welton 75 events &1000 KM; Joyce Payne 200; Mary Coleman 225; Dan Norgail 450; Carolyn Lai 450; Janet Oberg 600; Joyce Wahlstrom 50 & 500 KM; and Ken Tams 2500 KM. I know there are a lot more who need to get brave and send those full event and distance book in to AVA headquarters. The address is on the front of each book. It only take a regular stamp...So send them in.

We have a lot of great events lined up and sanctioned for 2008. Next event is the Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management area walk during the Eagle migration, Feb 16th. Flyer is on our website, and will be mailed out real soon. We will walk in Tooele on April 19, and Farmington Creek on May 3, and National Trails day on June 7. There is time to add a few more, so send in your suggestions and volunteer to help.

In addition to the regular event and distance awards, there are special categories. Record books to record sanctioned events is the Pony Express states, Rivers, all 50 states and state capitols events, and many more. Check out the AVA website to learn more, or give me a call and I will try to give these a pitch.

Waling is one of the best exercises we can do to maintain good health or recover from an otherwise life changing event. We encourage everyone to continue to walk and participate in other National fund raising events such as the MS and Relays for Life. We have not sanctioned these events with the AVA - because they were not very well attended last year. But these both are very important events. So let us know if we should sanction these.

Can you tell I really need help to keep Volkssports alive here? I probably would have stopped this some time ago. But each event I sell a few more new walker packets and meet more new friends and it makes if all worth it. Because of the sport, we have walked in all 50 states and 29 Utah counties. We've been to places I've never even thought of visiting. We've enjoyed every event--even in the rain and bad weather (some of those were the most memorable).

Well I've rambled on enough for a while. Hope to see you all at the next "bigger" event. Try to bring a friend or volunteer to help out, even manning a "live" checkpoint can be fun--if the weather is nice.

See you on the trails

Myra Tams, Gadabout President