3 February 2005
ONEIDA, TN - The Longbeards of the Big South Fork Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) has announced that its 2005 Super Fund Banquet will be held on Saturday, February 26, at Oneida High School.
The second-annual banquet will be held in the school's cafeteria and is slated to begin at 5 p.m., with dinner to be served at 6:30 p.m. Tickets should be purchased in advance and may be secured by
contacting Jerry Lay, chapter president, at 569-5400 or 569-5421.
The Longbeards of the BSF chapter was formed in July 2003 to bring a local voice to the NWTF from sportsmen and wildlife enthusiasts in Scott County. The chapter's first Super Fund Banquet was held in August. Lay said the quick turn-around between the first and second banquet was needed to bring the annual banquet in line with other chapters' banquets across the state.
"We had to have the first banquet shortly after we formed the chapter so we could get it in before
the NWTF's cut-off date," Lay said, adding that every chapter is required to have one banquet each
year. "From now on, we hope to have our banquet once a year each February," he said. "This is the time of year when sportsmen are starting to concentrate on turkey hunting, with the spring season just around the corner."
The super fund banquet offers an opportunity for local sportsmen to congregate and talk hunting. The banquet includes a catered meal and both a silent auction and a voice auction consisting of merchandise exclusive to the NWTF. A variety of hunting-related items and several guns will be raffled off, and the 2005 Members Gun of the Year - a Browning BPS shotgun - will be given away. An air rifle will be given away to a lucky Jakes member at the event. A few of the other guns to be given away include the Jakes gun of the year, a Mossberg 500, Mossberg 702 .22 rifle, a Mossberg 935 shotgun, a Knight thumbhole stock muzzleloader, a Charles Daly full camouflage shotgun, and an Armco over-and-under 12 guage shotgun.
The cost of a ticket to the event is $40, which includes a one-year membership to the NWTF, entry into the banquet and a meal ticket. Couples' tickets, which include one membership to the NWTF and
two meal tickets, are $50. Children may be added to the ticket for $5 each.
Banquet attendees will have an opportunity to join the Women in the Outdoors program, an NWTF program aimed at introducing women to outdoors recreation, and the Jakes program, a branch of the NWTF for youth hunters.
Lay said that while attendees of last year's banquet still have six months remaining on their membership, those six months will simply be added to their membership when they renew at this year's banquet.
"Basically, anyone who renews their membership by purchasing a banquet ticket will have 18 months remaining on their membership instead of 12 months," Lay said.
Some 100 people attended last year's inaugural banquet, a number the chapter hopes will grow this year. Lay said that the chapter, which currently boasts a membership of 71 adults and 28 Jakes members, hopes to raise enough funds for several projects that will benefit local sportsmen, including a Jakes day next month. A Jakes day, which Lay said will become an annual event in Scott County, offers a day for young sportsmen, aged 17 and younger, to shoot skeets and participate in other outdoors activities.
Another project already in progress for the Longbeards of the BSF is Operation Oak, a project that
involves planting more than two dozen white oak trees on public land in Scott County to benefit wild turkeys and other wildlife.
For more information about the Longbeards of the BSF and this year's banquet, contact Lay at 569-5400 or email jerlay@highland.net.
