Lone Star Friends of NRA Dinner AAR

I arrived at the Mesquite Convention Center at 09:00 to help set up for last night's dinner, starting early made for a stress free day. We unpacked and set up the items for the live and silent auctions, the drawings and then the games. Of course my favorite part was setting up the firearms. We had over 30 firearms available for lucky individuals to take home, and a good variety of additional items that would make pretty much anyone happy. During the dinner I helped a gentleman who had won an NRA fire pit who was as happy as could be. His wife had been wanting a fire pit for quite awhile, and he won one for her.

The event started a 6:00. There were 290 dinner tickets sold, and 310 seats. The overflow seats filled up with walk-ins and we had a good crowd of people keeping the raffle ticket sellers and the folks running the games busy. I did not run any games, as I wanted to spend some money and play.

We had 45 individuals and organizations step up to sponsor this dinner, as well as a good group of folks who donated items for the auctions. Speaking of auctions, the live auction went very well. This year Shorty Yeaman was our auctioneer, and he kept things hopping. The bidding was lively and the organization made some money. V got involved and won a Texas Flag that was flown over the State Capitol on February 6, 2008 in observance of President Ronald Regan's Birthday. This flag was donated by Lt. Governor David Dewhurst. I mentioned to V that I liked that flag and she made sure I got to take it home. I am a lucky man.

Speaking of lucky, I also ended up with a firearm in one of the drawings.

I am now the proud owner of a Charles Daly Field Hunter Maxi-Mag 12 gauge pump shotgun.

Dinner was Bar B Que, and our dinner speaker kept his talk short and sweet. James Dark, Executive Director of the Texas State Rifle Association, was our MC for the evening and he worked the crowd well.

The driving force behind this dinner, and a major factor in it's success was Tommy Easterling, the North Texas NRA Field Rep. Tommy was there before I arrived at 9:00 in the morning, and was still going strong when I left shortly after 11:00 that evening.

It appears that, once again, the Lone Star Friends of NRA dinner was a success. Folks had a good time and money was raised to support the shooting sports. I can't hardly wait until next year.