The Kelly Lake Sportsman’s Club held its annual Chicken, Tips and Toys gun banquet March 23 at Romy’s Holiday Inn at Kelly Lake.
Funds generated from the banquet are used to stock walleye and perch fingerlings in Kelly Lake and improve fish spawning habitat in the lake. The club also uses the funds for its annual scholarship program and local outreach programs.
More than 100 people attended this year’s event. Seventeen guns were given away on the main ticket, with additional guns awarded in other raffles. A blind raffle and meat raffle took place, and 15 bucket prizes, a guest prize, sponsor gun and other smaller prizes were awarded.
A highlight of the evening was recognition of the club’s 2014 Wounded Warrior participants. The club has an annual outreach program in which disabled veterans are selected to enjoy an outdoor event; something which they may not be able to do on their own. The club matches monies donated at the gun banquet to fund the program, then works through the Disabled American Veterans and Veterans Affairs to select candidates.
In 2014, four area DAV members were selected: John Boettcher, Jim Petersen, Jim Krueger and Lou Mangiot. Boettcher is commander of Chapter No. 45 of the DAV in Oconto County. The veterans elected to go on a Brewers trip to Milwaukee. A highlight of the day was a Brewers’ win.
Boettcher spoke at the banquet and told of the group’s service in the Vietnam era. Boettcher is a trained linguist fluent in Russian who served two consecutive tours of duty in Thailand and Vietnam.
President Arlyn Libal spoke about the club’s Wounded Warrior program.
The club expressed thanks to the DAV members and recognized other veterans at the banquet. Mary and Dave Tarmann, veterans of the Iraq War, were among those honored.
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