Scrapbook Project - Description

2006 marked a significant year in Kurt Browning's life, both from a career standpoint, and in his personal life. He turns 40 in June, and celebrates his 10th wedding anniversary with his wife, Sonia Rodriguez. And in March, at the World Championships in Calgary, he was inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame, a recognition well-deserved and long-overdue.

When the Kurt Files realized that 2006 would be such a year full of milestones, we decided that we had to do something to commemorate such a significant year, to celebrate Kurt's achievements and career, and just to thank him for the years of enjoyment he'd brought all of his fans over the years. To this end, a scrapbook project was organized that would incorporate messages, photos, and memories submitted by Kurt's fans and directed towards Kurt. The project was twofold: two books were to be created, one of messages from Kurt's fans to Kurt, and the other a fun "ABC book" inspired by Kurt's own "A is for Axel" book of words fans might associate with Kurt.

Fans from all over the Web mailed in full scrapbook pages that they had created for Kurt, or emailed messages and photos to include in the book. A poll of fans' top ten favorite Kurt programs was conducted, and comments on the top ten programs were solicited. The top ten programs to receive votes were incorporated into the "ABC book." Some messages and posts were found on various message boards and blogs, and used with permission by their authors. All in all, some 55 fans contributed messages or pages, while dozens more contributed money, comments, votes, ideas, poems, or photos.

The completed scrapbook project consisted of two books - the leatherbound 12"x12" fan message book "As Time Goes By: Or 101 Reasons Why We're Glad You Quit Hockey," and the colorful 12"x12" "K is for Kurt: A Kurt Browning Fan's Alphabet" - in a new Swiss Army briefcase so Kurt would have something to carry the books home in.

This project would not be possible without the hard work and contributions of Kurt fans everywhere. Several fans in particular put hours of time and effort into various aspects of both books, particularly the ABC book, which was largely created by a group of five dedicated fans - Doris, Brit, Jean, Suzie, and Toni. Special thanks to Wendy, who put in several very long nights helping me put together fan message pages from emailed submissions, and who diligently took photos of every page, as well as of Kurt receiving the book. Also special thanks to Jean, who came up with the idea of the ABC book, and had many creative and useful ideas for the book, as well as Brit who helped a great deal in the organizational and creative aspects of the book, and who helped to keep its organizer sane. Other fans donated ideas, photos, or money to help this project. Both the ABC book and the message book contain full credits pages citing all the contributors.

This page has been created to let fans get a look at the completed project that was given to Kurt at the reception after the Stars on Ice show in Vancouver, BC on May 7, 2006, as well as to get a glimpse at Kurt's reaction. Not every page will be shown - the pages posted here have been posted with the permission of the submitters, with names and faces blurred out where requested. However, enough should be here to give a sense of the work and love that went into this project from so many of Kurt Browning's dedicated fans.

Next...Kurt's reaction