Walker Manufacturing began a journey that has been amazing. The mower production began in 1980. It took 20 years to produce the first 50,000 mowers. It took only 8 more years for the 100,000th to roll off the production line. (DC has worked for them as a buyer for the last 8 years, after he was unceremoniously "downsized" - don't you love that term - by his employer of 27+ years). This last week-end was the Family Reunion - the second one. Have you ever heard of a company having a family reunion? For the second time, Walkers invited anyone who had ever worked for them, worked for them now, sold a mower, bought a mower, distributed mowers, used a mower, wished they had a mower, to come and celebate the 100,000th mower. Approximately 3000 people showed up - from all over the world.
It was HOT. But they came and they stayed around for 2 days, some 3. There were things for the kids to do, there was an obstacle course (the same young man won for the 4th time in a row), there was great food, there was entertainment on the stage as people visited, there were balloon rides and helicopter rides, there was a talent show, there was the driving of the 100,000th mower driven in a parade of sorts by the woman who won the drawing for the privilege. There is Walker Ware to purchase. There was a free pancake breakfast for everyone, there was a free brat dinner for everyone, there were DC's clients - many suppliers - there with giveaways. There was a flag raising, with flags from all over the world showcased - those countries where Walker mowers are sold.
The mower of honor looked like all the rest to me, but it has a special paint to make it stand out from the crowd -
There were many wonderful prizes given away by the customers - some little fun stuff, and some amazingly generous gifts. Walkers give away FIVE of their mowers - mowers that sell for $7000-$15000. You had to be present to win - and many people had gone swimming to cool off and lost their opportunity. Can you imagine their chagrin when they learned this?? Here's a picture of 4 of the 5 with our friend, the CEO of the company. (If you have any grass in your town, you'll probably see these mowers being hauled around by lawn care companies - we have so many young guys around here who start their own lawn mowing companies and eventually can afford one or two of these mowers - they have long trailers and haul them around town - start looking and I'm sure you'll see them. Their claim to fame is that they do a 360 around trees, etc., and have a great grass collecting system).
The evening finally began to settle in and cool off. Three concerts were scheduled -- none of the artists were familiar to me, but they were a hit with the hard-working employees. The first guy (I didn't get a good picture - the lighting was bad at that time of day) was Mike Snider and his band - they were a very talented group of pickers and strummers - with Mike's humor thrown in. He was also a very talented harmonica player.
The second concert was with Pam Tillis - I'm sure some of you know of her and are probably fans. I remember hearing of her dad, and for some reason remembered that he has a stuttering problem, but that's all I knew about him. Pathetic, huh? But Pam is a charming performer, even though country is not my favorite. She gave us a good concert.
Then as darkness settled down, the third star took the stage - I really had never heard of him, and I have to say he was my least favorite act - but the workers really got into his program. His name was A*ron Tipp*n. It was fun to watch the crowd, but I was getting pretty tired and was happy when he finished his performance.
One interesting sidelight of his performance - every concert he shows his work ethic roots and puts together a bicycle for Toys for Tots. This time he decided to help put together a Walker mower. The already assembled deck was carried onto the stage and each of the shop supervisors brought his individual part of the mower to complete the job - they finished putting it together in a matter of minutes. Then he got to call the winner's name and he autographed the mower. It was quite exciting. Wouldn't you know - my battery died at this inopportune moment.
The closing ceremony was a great highlight - first of all, 100,000 firecrackers were set off - I wish I had timed how long it took - it was amazing.
Then the grand finale - a wonderful fireworks show. We'd been there since 7:30 a.m. and it was now 9:30 p.m.. but it was a great day.
But that wasn't the end. Remember - this is a very unusual Christ-centered company with devoutly Christian leaders. They wanted to end the week-end with a worship service for those who were able to stay around. (Thank you, Lord, for the nice cloud cover for most of the service!) DC's quartet sang - the two Walker guys are on the right.
We had a great time singing together with a local church's praise team - in fact, one of the members of the team has a new Walker mower of his own, because his wife's name was drawn.
The patriarch and matriarch of the Walker family are wonderful role models - he had a stroke a few years ago and is unable to talk, but he sat there with her in one of the carts that get people around the large property - tears flowed from many of us as their daughter shared their testimony with us.
The message was brought by a professor from Colorado Christian University and it was a true blessing - this man was a gifted communicator. What a wonderful time we had throughout the week-end.
