“Bigger and better than ever,” is how Creston Valley Rod & Gun Club president Traven Huscroft described the club’s recent wild game dinner and auction.
“This year was our biggest to date,” he said on Friday, “With over 250 adults and 50 kids it was a tight squeeze in the Creston room.”
Of course the room was also filled with hunting trophies, raffle prizes and auction items. This was, of course, the club’s primary fundraiser of the year.
“Money raised from this years banquet is being used to enhance our Mawson Lake property with the addition of floating casting platforms for better access to the great bass fishing there, expanding our day use with the addition of more picnic tables and fire pits and clearing some space for overnight tenting spots,” Huscroft said. “We will also be using funds to repair and enhance our shooting range out in Kidd Creek for members.”
Among the highlights of the event, Huscroft listed trophy presentations for adults’ and kids’ animals harvested in 2016, a Dimitri Karountzos-catered dinner that featured cougar meatballs, grizzly bear ham, mule deer sliders, gemsbuck antelope meat, barbecued moose roast and whitetail salami, and a raffle draw for a 2016 Polaris Sportman 450 HO quad. A happy Maggie Maddess, age 3, claimed her prize when her ticket was drawn.
“The banquet is family oriented, with prizes for all kids that attend and general seating tables set up with crafting paper as table cloths and boxes of crayons on all the tables,” he said. “We end up with interesting doodles at end of the night! There is also a more formal component for people that would like private tables which are sponsored. The tables seat eight and come stocked with wine. In short there is something for everyone.”
The evening wound up with a dance, with DJ services provided Cranbrook’s Just Music.
Last year some of funds raised through the banquet went to the Creston search and rescue group to help purchase a new boat for use in operations on Kootenay Lake. It was a joint use project with Creston search and rescue and the BC Conservation Office.