Good time at FNRA auction

Tomorrow evening, Friends of the National Rifle Association (FNRA) will hold their annual Valley chapter fundraising banquet at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center in Wasilla. Tickets for this event have been sold out for several weeks, so if you don’t already have yours, you’ll have to wait for next year’s event.

The governor is scheduled to address the banquet, along with the borough mayor and Wasilla mayor. As is usual for a fundraising event, there will be raffles, silent and live auctions, and various games, all designed to raise money for the organization.

I spoke briefly with Denny Hamann, whose wife, Lori, is the contact person for the event. Denny told me this will probably be the largest FNRA banquet in Alaska, with 425 tickets sold. Denny commented that if twice that number of tickets had been available along with a venue capable of supporting that number of people, they probably would have still sold out weeks prior to the date.

With the national discussion on gun control raging across the land, folks here in Alaska have decided to voice their opinions through financial support of the FNRA, which funds and supports firearms training and education; various shooting sports activities like the Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP); and provides the resources to build shooting ranges.

My wife and I first attended this banquet about seven years ago. We attended as the guests of Peter and Mary Ann Probasco. The Best Western Lake Lucille Inn was the location and several dignitaries were also present then.

The dress code was “Alaskan casual” – just my style! I wore a clean pair of Carhartt jeans with a nice shirt and my fancy suspenders with the moose print. I even broke out my one and only string tie for the occasion. My wife looked a lot nicer — but then, she does anyway.

We had a good time. The company at our table was entertaining, the dinner was served on time and the prime rib was really tender. I almost won a silent auction item; being a starving freelance writer, I couldn’t justify paying more than retail in the bidding though. My wife bought a chance for some really nice jewelry, but her ticket ended up in the same “didn’t win” pile as our other tickets. The evening’s events were aimed at fundraising, so at least all the money went toward a good cause.

We had never attended one of these events before. We always figured this type of fundraising banquet was a little beyond our financial means. We learned that one don’t have to be rich to attend, but it would take a little prudent “saving” prior to the evening’s activities just to be sure a bid on a favorite auction item doesn’t blow the monthly budget.

I would guess there were at least a hundred different items that had been donated to the event for the various auctions or drawings that evening. The businesses and individuals who sponsored these donations made a major contribution toward helping the FNRA maintain our Second Amendment freedoms. The donors deserve a special thank you from everyone in our community, as the donors for this year’s banquet do as well. The Second Amendment serves as the basic underpinning of the entire U.S. Constitution.

If you can’t meaningfully resist any government’s oppression or foreign invasion, how free are you really?

One of the liveliest auctions occurred between two gentlemen for a lemon meringue pie made and donated by Mary Ann Probasco. During the first pie auction, there were several good-natured jabs back and forth between the two men located on either side of the room. When a second lemon pie from Probasco was auctioned, the gentleman who lost the first go-around was finally able to secure dessert for his table.

I made a suggestion to the banquet committee for future events. I noticed during the live auctions that items carried around the room by the young ladies seemed to draw more and higher bids than those presented by my peers: the older, rotund, gray-haired guys. It will be interesting to see if that same quirk of human nature manifests itself again at next year’s banquet.

My wife and I expressed our thanks to Peter and Mary Ann Probasco for inviting us to be guests at their table. And to whoever is named Harm, I hope you have enjoyed the windproof lighter you outbid me for seven years ago.

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. You can leave him a message by emailing sports@frontiersman.com.