 The president's budget proposal eliminates public media funding. Learn how you can help at lptv.org slash action. Well for the last 50 years skaters of all ages and experience levels have improved their skills with the experts at the Bemidji Figure Skating Club. For this week's community spotlight Mel Meyer saw current and former members hit the ice to celebrate the golden jubilee. I didn't know you were coming. As the skaters ran through dress rehearsal founding member Gordon Payne fondly recalls how he was hired to teach a skating class in 1964. In 1967 we decided we needed to take things a little further and so we developed a club. The fantasy on ice show brought a flood of memories back for many of the over 50 alumni in attendance. While this year's annual show was held at the sanford center, Payne remembers the good old days at the old city rink. Which the roof fell in on and so he's still skated on the outdoor rink there and uh that's how it began. The club has come a long way since then. In 1986 the club brought the ice lights to win fifth place in the junior precision division at nationals. We used to spend early mornings training with one of our skaters dad who was a drill sergeant, drill sergeant ROTC practicing drills in the army. Skated at 5 30 a.m. For some of the figure skaters it's been a while since they had seen each other. There are people here that we haven't seen in yeah 30 years right some of us. And even longer since they had been out on the ice. I was nervous putting skates on I hadn't skated in 12 years but it's like riding a bike. While a few of the out-of-towners had a video to practice too. I only got a little bit down so today is basically the first day I'm learning it. They only had one rehearsal to bring it all together. It took not too long to learn um but it was kind of chaotic because we had to learn it like really quickly. When the lights went down and the spotlights came on you had no clue that the rest of the alumni had just an hour and a half to learn and practice the routine. In Bemidji with this week's community spotlight I'm Mal Meyer, Lakeland News. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.