Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
WHITE THUNDER Riders club president Joel Enking, left, and Dave Vuorenmaa hold up items auctioned off at the Iron County Memorial Building in Hurley on Saturday as a fund-raiser to groom snowmobile trails.
HURLEY - On a sunny Saturday, snowmobilers and local residents filled the Iron County Memorial Building to raise funds to groom the trails.
The White Thunder Riders snowmobile club of Oma conducted its annual winter fund-raiser.
To get to the event, snowmobilers could ride the trail to Jerry's Amoco and then cross the street to obtain easy access to the Memorial Building parking lot off U.S. 51.
One by one, items donated by businesses and individuals were auctioned off to the highest bidders in the full hall.
On a day with temperatures in the single digits, it seemed like a heatwave compared to Friday's bitter cold, windy weather.
The evening also included an Italian dinner by Scotti Pecotti, dancing and DJ music by Todd Haeger.
Joel Enking, president of the club, said last week while the club gets a set amount of money per mile of trail groomed, it usually uses that up in early January. Then, the club relies on supplemental funding to cover costs for the rest of the season, bringing in the fund-raising efforts.
The club can also submit to the DNR for supplemental funding.
The WTR club has 157 family and 58 commercial memberships.
Its members groom 135 miles of trails across Iron County, with 25 to 30 people manning the machines.
-Ralph Ansami
