By PAUL DAVIS
Outdoors Editor
The Three Rivers Buglers chapter of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation will celebrate its 20th anniversary May 12 when it hosts its annual Big Game Banquet at the Black River Coliseum in Poplar Bluff.
"It's a milestone event for us," said committee member Lenard Wagganer of the anniversary banquet. "When we started, our goal was to get elk in Missouri, and we made it happen."
"That's why we originally started," added banquet chairman Mike Price. "We helped raise the seed money to get the elk."
The doors to the banquet, with around 400 people expected, will open at 5 p.m., and the early evening will feature "lots of raffles and games," Wagganer said.
A large silent auction, with items like hunting gear and RMEF merchandise, also will be held early in the evening and the popular 10-gun raffle will be expanded to 12 guns this year.
Also back for the event will be special tables geared specifically toward women and children, Wagganer said, so there will be something for everyone's interests.
Karon Campbell's Tasteful Creations will serve a steak and chicken dinner, after which volunteers auctioneers Haven Willis, Felix Baker and Speedy Ketcherside will conduct a live auction. Numerous framed prints, various home decor, hunting gear and more merchandise will be up for grabs.
As in recent years, a four-person African hunt with Fig Tree Safaris also will be auctioned off, as will a two-person, four-day mule deer hunt in Wyoming with Hart of Wyoming Outfitters.
Around 50 guns are expected to be given away over the course of the banquet, Wagganer said, including Kimber pistols, a Walther 9mm pistol, several shotguns, Browning A-Bolt and X-Bolt rifles, multiple AR-15 rifles and a Henry Golden Boy lever-action rifle in .22LR-caliber.
This year's Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Gun of the Year will be a Henry Silver Boy lever-action rifle in .357-Magnum caliber, and the sponsor guns will be Kimber bolt-action rifles in the popular 6.5-Creedmoor chambering.
Tickets to the event cost $35 for a membership, plus $25 per meal, Wagganer noted. Sponsorships costing $300, plus meals, also are available.
Sponsorships, Wagganer noted, are critical to the success of the banquet, and the local chapter has been ranked No. 2 in sponsor sales nationwide for the last several years.
All tickets must be purchased in advance of the banquet, Wagganer said, in order to get an accurate meal count, and they can be picked up in Poplar Bluff at Shooters Shack or Poplar Bluff Outdoor Power. They also can be obtained by calling Wagganer at 573-718-5030, Rick White at 573-429-3967 or any other committee member.
"It's a fun evening," Price said of the annual banquet. "It's probably one of the premier social events in Poplar Bluff."