Each year at the International Snowmobile Congress, a groomer operator is chosen from each ofthe three Chapters of the International Snowmobile Council and honered by Arctic Cat as the (Groomer Operator of the Year.)

To carry this program one step further, the INTERNATIONAL GROOMER OPERATOR OF THE YEAR AWARD was developed with the cooperation of the International Snowmobile Hall of Fame and Arctic Cat to give credit to one of these groomer operators. They put so much time and energy into the sport and are seldom recognized for all they do for snowmobiling.

This year's selection committee has chosen Ken Race from Woodruff, Wisconsin (Vilas County) to receive the first Annual International Groomer Operator Award.

Ken Race received national recognition last June at the International Snowmobile Congress in Reno, Nevada. Now he has been selected fro three groomer operators that received the national award to be honored and recognized as the Internatinal recipient.

Ken Race is the first Wisconsin groomer operator to receive any National recognition and now to receive this second award is unbelievable to him. He has been a groomer operator for the Arbor Vitae Woodruff Cross Counrty Cruisers for more than 20 years. The 400 member club has three groomers, two Tuckers and one John Deere, while he snowmobiles only about 100 miles a year, he grooms over 1500 miles of trails each snowmobile season in Vilas and Oneida Counties.

He takes his work serious and will tell you that if it was not for the best snowmobile trails being here, there would not be all of the winter visitors to keep this area going.