This year, we decided to do something totally new for the Winnipeg market… we hosted a corporate shorelunch for our past, present, and hopefully future guests! The event was at the Granite Curling Club in downtown Winnipeg, and was MC’d by the “Voice of the Goldeyes” and good friend Paul Edmonds. We held a short 20 minute presentation followed by a mouth-watering shorelunch! For the presentation, Pit and Julie spoke about all of the different experiences that make up the “Aikens Experience”. Gerry spoke about the history of the lodge and its dedication to “green” solutions. Jimmy tantalized the crowd with tales of what they could expect in the culinary department. Finally, Pat had the crowd roaring with his take on being guided at Aikens! Paul did a wonderful job in helping us through our presentation in a very cohesive and quick manner, then shared his own experiences at Aikens. Lorraine, Denis and Points took care of the registration, serving, and babysitting duties during the presentations!

It was good that Paul bridged our presentations quickly and efficiently, because we were holding up the real reason that people were there… fresh lemon-pepper/cajun/and beerbatter walleye! It was a great meal and made us want the snow to melt at once so we could head up to the lodge! At the end of lunch, we drew for a trip for two. One of the participants from the shorelunch made the draw, and it was announced that our friend (and a client that hasn’t made it up to Aikens for the last few seasons) Mr. Roger Hogue had won a trip for two this summer! He was so very thrilled and we are looking forward to hosting him again in 2007! Thanks to everyone who came to the shorelunch, and a big thankyou to the “Aikens Family” that helped us put on such a great event.

For the 2nd consecutive year, we at Aikens travelled to Toronto, Ontario for their annual Sportsman’s Expo.  The “little NY” was another very busy show, with most of the crowds arriving during the daytime hours.  We met up with the “Survivorman” Les Stroud who expressed his sincere thanks for last year’s PWT Celebrity Shootout!  Although we don’t have a very large base of customers in Toronto just yet, it just seems like a matter of time before we do!

As many of you that have fished with our head guide Pat already know, he is quite an accomplished actor in the winter. He was best known for his role a few year’s back as “Mr. Cucumber” on a french children’s TV show, but closer to his heart he has been working with a local francophone theatre troupe called the “Cercle Molière” for as long as he’s been coming to Aikens! The “Cercle Molière” has been around for nearly 80 years, and they will feature everything from comedies to who-dunits to dramas. They present a great mix of plays written by famous writers (translated into french) as well as local ones.

Today, the troupe was featured in the Winnipeg Free Press as their 4th and final play of the season is set to begin tomorrow night. It is a sold out show once again!  In fact, every ticket for every one of their 4 plays (each runs for 4 weeks) this season has been sold… they sold out so fast that Julie and I couldn’t even get our customary season tickets when we returned from Aikens this fall.  Unfortunately this means that we won’t be able to watch Pat in action!  In the play, Pat plays a leading role and we couldn’t resist putting the Free Press picture in our newsletter! Some of our longtime clients will also recognize the leading lady, Janique Lavallee, who worked at Aikens in the early 90’s. I have copied an excerpt from the Winnipeg Free Press for you to read what our local scribes have to say about the sold-out play and the Cercle Molière’s recent success.

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