Wallowa County Chieftain
News
wallowa.com
October 21, 2015
A11
Friends of NRA banquet raises $114K
By Kathleen Ellyn
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE
Maybe
it’s because we’re leading up
to an election, or maybe it’s
because there are a couple
hundred gun-toting Wallowa
County residents who want
to have some retail therapy in
the company of like-minded
folks, or maybe . . . the rea-
sons for NRA membership are
diverse.
In any case, 276 folks
bought out tickets to the Wal-
lowa County Friends of NRA
Banquet almost a month be-
fore it happened; the event
was Saturday, Oct. 17 and it
was sold out by Sept. 28.
The
event
grossed
$114,000, half of which will
come back to the Oregon
Friends of NRA State Fund
Committee to be used for
grants and scholarships.
“(Our banquet) was a
tremendous success,” said
a beaming Stephen Wolfe,
chairman of the Wallowa
County Friends of NRA. “I’m
so tickled. It exceeded my ex-
pectations. I can’t thank the
community enough for their
tremendous support.”
The chapter is even thank-
ing more than 100 people who
never made it to the event.
There are over 100 who
sponsored, underwrote or do-
nated to the banquet but were
unable to attend because of
limited seating, Wolfe said.
“In addition to those peo-
ple, there were even more
people who would have liked
to come,” Wolfe said. “We
could have sold another 100
Kathleen Ellyn/Chieftain
Approximately 280 people gathered to enjoy a night of bidding, socializing and eating at the 2015 NRA Banquet, Oct. 17.
Kathleen Ellyn/Chieftain
Kathleen Ellyn/Chieftain
Chief Joseph Days Rodeo Queen candidates Lauren Makin and Sarah Aschenbrenner help
out at the banquet.
Rep. Barretto socializes with one of his constituents at the
NRA Banquet.
tickets easy if we’d had room
to put the people.”
Fifty-six
guns
were
awarded, sold or rafÀed at the
event along with thousands
of dollars of other items.
Bruce Bliven of Enter-
prise was the big bidder of
the night, purchasing the
landowner preference youth
cow hunt tag in Sled Springs
(hunt came with a Reming-
ton 0.06 riÀe wscope); and
all the “key” items that gave
him a key that might open the
padlock on the Rossi Model
2 RiÀe with an NRA Coin
inset. He took no chances,
even negotiating a deal with
a fellow who outbid him on
one key item. In addition to
his Rossi, he won a bonus
Funding
NRA funds come into the county in some
of the following ways: Divide Camp got a
grant for an all terrain track wheelchair to al-
low disable veterans to hunt; range improve-
ments have been made for Eagle Cap Shoot-
ers Association and Wallowa Rod and Gun
Club; for the last two years WC NRA has
prize of a Chiappa 1873-style
revolver.
After a ¿ne dinner catered
by Tammy Couch of Enter-
prise and featuring prime rib
bought at Dollar Stretcher
and cooked by Randy Gar-
nett’s Apple Flats Catering,
attendees began sharing their
opinions about gun owner-
ship with table mates.
Les Bridges of Enterprise
uses his guns for hunting. He
got his tickets to the event
early and was at the event
awarded three $1,000 scholarships per year
to local high school seniors; and the Educa-
tion Summit Scholarship is open to for high
school students - a winner is chosen every
June to take a three-day trip to Salem to see
how government works, and vie for a trip to
Wash. D.C.
because “our second amend-
ment rights are the most im-
portant thing to me and I ap-
preciate how active the NRA
is in protecting those rights.”
Gail and Doug Wickre
of Joseph have been NRA
members for 45 years. Gun
ownership was natural to the
Wickres, who have lived in
Juneau, Alaska and other re-
mote locations where carry-
ing a ¿rearm is recommended
for those going into the wil-
derness.
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The Wickres are ready to
discuss issues of access to
¿rearms, background checks
and more – that ‘more’ in-
cludes pointing out that gun
ownership is meant to come
with some heavy responsibil-
ities.
“My granddad used to
carry his gun to school, hunt-
ing on the way in and on the
way home,” Doug Wickre re-
called. “There were no school
shootings in his day and his
daddy would have thumped
him if there had ever been a
mishandling of ¿rearms.”
As Doug Wickre sees it,
the current misuse of fire-
arms is indicative of a prob-
lem of values. In a rural so-
ciety there’s no anonymity,
he said. In the city, individ-
uals can own guns and no
one knows about it or about
them.
“It’s a problem I see with
thuggery,” he said. “One of
the biggest methods of teach-
ing responsibility in a rural
society is in teaching proper
behavior around handling a
gun.”
Individuals who want to
attend next year’s 2016 WC
Friends of NRA banquet can
purchase tickets right now,
Wolfe said, though where
he’ll put all the people next
year is an open question.
“We’ve looked at renting
a tent,” he admitted.
The Chieſtain says,
Think
Pink
The Chieftain will be donating all
pink ad color proceeds from the month
of October to the Wallowa Memorial
Hospital. The money will go towards
mammography exams for those unable
to afford them in Wallowa County.
Show your support
by placing your business ad
in PINK in the month of October.
Call or Email Jennifer today!
541-426-4567 jpowell@wallowa.com