The Kirkreit Summer Picnic is held for the RCT membership and their guests every year at a location in or around Tacoma.
On Sunday August 4, 2024, club members gathered at the back picnic shelter on the west side of the lawn (shelter #1) at Fort Steilacoom Park, in Lakewood. This is the location we have used for several years past.
This event was pot luck, with the club supplying grilled picnic entrees and soft drinks. Attendees brought their favorite sides and desserts!
The chow-down and socializing were topped-off with a game of RINGO (radio bingo), where fabulous prizes of negligeable worth were awarded to the contestants. Quite a few pictures of this event are published beginning on page 19 of the September 2024 issue of The Logger's Bark, which you can read here.
Directions: once you enter the park from 87th Ave SW, follow the road to a four-way intersection. At the stop sign, turn right and follow the road to the barricade. At that point there is a parking lot to your immediate right which is the closest to our picnic shelter. Click the map below to enlarge.
Origin of the Kirkreit Picnic
Jim (SK) and Judy Kirkreit were very active members of RCT. Jim was President of the club in 1994 and 1995, and he received the Doc Spike award in 1995. Judy remains a lifetime member of the club.
RCT had long held a summer picnic, known as "DK at the Beach", at the Owen Beach waterfront area of Pt. Defiance Park. In addition to socializing and consumption of tasty picnic fare, this activity typically included field operation of equipment along with antenna demonstrations and shootouts. In 2006, the Tacoma Park Service rendered the Owen Beach location less desirable by raising fees and making cooking facilities (grills and fireplaces) unusable. That year, the summer picnic was moved to Spanaway Lake, and beginning in 2007 the event became known as the Kirkreit Memorial Picnic.