Last night Clider and I went to the D.U. benefit dinner at
the Wallace Elks lodge here in the Silver Valley. It’s been a while since
Ducks Unlimited has had a chapter in the valley and we wanted to go and
represent the H7HT well. Tickets were $35 for the event and prime rib
dinner and there are always many prizes to win. Long time readers will
remember that I won a hunting rifle at the last D.U. dinner I attended in CdA
years ago. We hoped to bring some of that magic with us. Going into
the Elks Club was like stepping back in time and the upstairs was filled with
guns and merchandise to win and lots of people. Clider commented that
people in the valley do benefits well, and he is right. Fundraisers of
all kinds, whether for organizations like D.U., the NRA, scholarships or for
individuals in need, are well attended. I guess there were about 150+
people there and everyone was ready to spend.
We both bought the $100 booklet of tickets and started in on
the raffle prizes. I was smitten with a cedar clad mailbox and bid
heavily on that. Clider, in addition to spreading his tickets around,
went after only the goose floaters. He claims to have enough decoys
already. I bid into lots of different decoys and other items but had my
eye on that mailbox. Surely nobody else was interested and if I put
enough tickets in I would win. Rocky the miner was there too and Clider
and he chatted as Rocky mindlessly tossed tickets into the mailbox raffle, no
doubt trying to steal my prize. We both had 3 gold tickets for a special
raffle and I went for 3 different guns, Clider went for two guns and a layout
blind.
Other money raffles were the $20’ goose band’ for a
beautiful D.U. edition Benelli autoloader with gold inlay, the $20 ‘shot game’
for another gun and the $10 ‘envelope game’ where everyone wins a prize.
We were all in.
After a long line for dinner of prime rib, overcooked beans,
mashers and puffy rolls we were ready to claim our prizes. The live
auction was first and I tried my best to convince Clider that he needed every
item that came up for bids to no avail. The first gun went to a non-H7HT
member sitting next to us and raffle prizes started flying off the
shelves. A twinge of remorse came as I watched some nice flocked
greenies, that would have looked great in our spread, go to someone else.
The first big money raffle was the ‘shot raffle’ and Clider was in. The
announcer mentioned the gun name followed by the number 17. The very same
number as on the bottom of his shot glass, winner! Microseconds after
saying the number 17, and as Cliders hand was going up in victory, announcer
man follows with the caliber. Seems the 17 was the model number, not the
winner. And so it went for the next hour or so. The H7HT sat by and
watched as other people walked off with our stuff. Rocky the miner won
the layout blind and a fine thermos and we were happy for him. A guy
sitting at the table behind us got my mailbox. We’re pretty sure from his
reaction that it went straight to the pile of stuff in the back of his shed. My
old boss at DSM won a BB gun and Kids bow hunting kit for his daughters and a
big spender from up north won tons of goods and services. The time
finally came for the ‘goose band’ raffle. I prayed out loud to Heston for
us both. The beautiful Benelli went to an old man near the front
and all the other prizes had found good homes too.
The very last game was the ‘envelope game’ where everyone
wins a prize. Clider got a Cabellas coupon and a duck call. I got a
cabellas coupon and a baseball card. On the drive home we figured that
the event raised many thousands of dollars (Thirty? Forty?) for the ducks, and
wasn’t that the reason we were there in the first place? The H7HT doesn’t
need to win all the time like we do in the duck blind, we just need to be there
to help the ducks and D.U. with our hard earned dollars. As a consolation
prize Clider loudly blew his new duck call for the entire ride home.
Sweet!
When I got to work this morning I looked up my baseball card
on the interweb as a joke. It’s a 1959 Bazooka Billy Pierce card, he
played for the White Sox and was a hall of famer in 59’. The first hit
was from Ebay and I clicked on it. Identical card to mine in a plastic
case selling for $1,200. Winner! Then I looked around more and
realized it’s worth from $6 to $20 in mint condition, the one on Ebay must be a
misinformed joke. I can still hear Cliders duck call ringing in my ear.
GBCH
