When newly retired Deputy Sheriff John Munk took off his badge, he didn’t have plans to replace it with a fishing pole— not by a long shot. Instead, he jumped on his Walker Mower and took what he’s been doing in his spare time to a different level.

Follow Route 27 south out of Amarillo, Texas for 20 miles and you will pass through Canyon, home of West Texas A&M. Situated on a beautiful 176-acre residential campus, the university has nearly 8,000 students, 252 full-time faculty, and 569 full-time staff members. Working behind the scenes to keep the campus in top shape are Grounds Manager, Larry Bedwell, and Transportation Manager, Bruce Bassett.

What do Vida, Oregon, neighbors John Farkus, Biff Owen, Ted West, Gene Jones, Jim Goodpasture, Kameron Maxwell and David Cousineau have in common? For one thing, on any given Saturday they can be found using Walker Mowers to manicure their landscapes.

Young people going into business often dream of making it big one day. Dreams are drivers, but few entrepreneurs have the drive that Garrett Faulkner had when he launched Down to Earth Landscaping right out of high school. Now, four years later, the 21-year-old owner says he would like to be one of the biggest landscape contracting companies in the country.

Blueville Nursery in Manhattan, Kansas, is different from most nurseries around the country. Even though 30 of the company’s 45 acres are devoted to growing trees, evergreens, shrubs and sod, the nursery itself accounts for a small percentage of annual sales.

Two weeks out of the year, young soccer enthusiasts and college soccer coaches from around the country converge on Kalispell, Montana to attend Flathead Soccer Camp. What makes this non-residential and not-for-profit camp different from other such venues is its founder and operator, Mike Stebbins. The 66-year-old orthodontist started the camp 15 years ago primarily to give local youngsters a place to grow their soccer and life skills.