Dream leads to board game invention

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Don't ignore your dreams. They can come true.

A Minnesota body-shop-owner-turned-board-game-inventor is living proof.

Kurt Kirckof had a dream several years ago.

He envisioned a board game that would help children learn to count.

After jotting down notes on scratch paper, he didn't take his dream very seriously at first. He put the notes in a dresser drawer and left them there for several years.

A few years later, he found the notes and decided to actually design a board game, as he and his wife had children who were learning to count.

"We thought the game would be good to further their use of numbers and stimulate the logical part of their brain," Kirckof said.

The rest is history.

Kirckof entered the board game in the INPEX XVII contest in Pittsburgh, Pa., last May and won a gold medal in the toys and games category. Last June, he entered the Minnesota Inventors Congress in Redwood Falls. The contest didn't include a games category, so the game was entered in the household category and earned a third-place medal. This October, the game won first place at a convention in Las Vegas.

The nephew of Willard Kirckof of New Ulm and owner of an auto body and repair shop in Brooten, Kirckhof visited his uncle and Thrifty White Drug, which is marketing his board game in its stores across the state.

He still spends most of his daytime hours in the body shop.

The game, which utilizes dice or cards and spinning dials as one to four players move from the starting spot of the board to the winner's spot.

The game is popular with small children, special-education students and senior citizens, Kirckof said. His target market includes children ages 4 and older, day-care facilities, nursing homes and waiting rooms.

"Teachers love it," he said.

The game is geared to help children learn to count, add and subtract in a fun, entertaining way, foster their enthusiasm for learning, and develop and hone motor skills.

Kirckof considers the game an alternative pastime to television, computers and video games that encourages interaction and friendly competition.

A web site that includes a kids' page, information about the game and Kirckof can be found at www.going-goingcrazy.com