Lucas Punkari
It’s been happening for 28 years in Fort Frances, and the 2011 edition of the Ducks Unlimited banquet once again was a rousing success.
Exact totals won’t be known for a few days but according to treasurer Chris Wielinga, about $15,300 was raised in the silent and live auctions which took place during the course of Friday evening at La Place Rendez-Vous.
That’s on top of a gross of $14,500 coming from the various raffles held.
“We have had a long run of success here, and we’re constantly among the top fundraising chapters in all of Ontario,” noted Kevin Begin, who chairs the local DU committee.
“We regularly sell-out and there’s very little advertising that is needed because the event just seems to sell itself,” he added.
“Fifty to seventy percent of our tables are the same people every year,” Begin stressed.
That level of support was noted by Robert Watson, the fundraising manager for Ducks Unlimited for Northwestern and Northeastern Ontario.
“It’s just fantastic,” he said.
“When you see a community like Fort Frances be able to pull off the dinner as well as they do, and to see the amount of funds that has been raised, it’s just phenomenal,” he enthused.
Originally being a guy’s night out for many in attendance, the evening now has become something both men and women take part in, with both young and old alike bidding on the items during the auctions.
“When I started attending the dinners about 20 years ago, I would say back then there was a lot more hunters just looking to have some fun,” Begin recalled.
“In the last 10 years, though, it’s really transformed itself to more of a family and a corporate event, and there [are] a lot less duck hunters now in the crowd,” he noted.
All of the money raised Friday evening will end up going throughout the province, with a certain part of the proceedings heading back here to Rainy River District.
“Most of the money goes to our priority areas where we are suffering wetlands loss, which around here we are lucky to say that we don’t have that,” Watson explained.
“Some may be asking, ‘How come our money is going to southern Ontario instead of staying up here in the north?’
“Well, basically in the Simcoe region, which is along the central southern flyway, we are experiencing almost a 100 percent loss of wetlands,” he stressed.
“If we lose those wetlands, that will affect the migratory birds and waterfowl that are in this area, as well, so it really helps to benefit the whole country,” Watson reasoned.
This year’s top-seller in the live auction was the “Waiting for Ice” polar bear photograph taken and donated by Shannon Curtis, which went to Ken Jackson for $800.
