Saturday, January 31, 2015 Banquet
The annual Arrows & Antlers banquet was another great success. This year brought some banquet changes, including a new banquet location. This year’s banquet was held at Savanna Oaks in Fall River, WI. The new location allowed us to expand the club a bit – going forward we will now have 100 members and 40 guests invited to our annual celebration.
One thing that definitely didn’t change was the fact that the food was fantastic, thanks to Gary Merkes and chef Steve Johnson. This year’s menu featured a variety of venison, elk, bear, caribou, turkey, pheasant, catfish, and other assorted fish – and we washed it all down with 5 – ½ barrels of beer. A special thanks also goes out to Dennis McDonald and Todd Brumm for all their assistance in making the event a success!
We had another great year of generous sponsor donations and door prizes. Steve Will once again donated a free Arrows & Antlers membership. This year it was won by Ken Schmidt. The Mission Riot bow was won by Nick Schroedl. The beer/booze/cooler raffle was won by Galen Peterson. Arrows & Antlers also partnered with Shawn Arnold from Auburn Ridge to raffle off a handmade 7-gun cabinet, which was won by Jimmy Zbigniewicz. Rob Hill of Nature’s Image Taxidermy once again donated a $500 head mount voucher this year, which was won by Dan Herzberg. Arrows & Antlers also purchased a second Mission Riot for a secret final raffle, and Matt Chaussee was the lucky winner!
We also raffled off $5,000 in cash prizes, given away as 10-$500 prizes – those winners were: Matt Chaussee, Steve Steiner, Matt Schroud, Scott Bailey, Mark Wolfgram, Gib Fagan, Raul Gomez, Adam Hampton, Tommy Kempfer, and Dennis McDonald.
We had 11 bucks entered into the contest this year, and the results were: 1st place – John Gross (156 7/8), TIE 2nd place – Jeremy Gross (141 7/8), TIE 2nd place – Kevin Reis (141 7/8), 4th place – Mark Moehrke (136 4/8), 5th place – Fred Babino (132 6/8), 6th place – Kevin Moreland (132 3/8), 7th place – Jon Landsverk (119 7/8), 8th place – Scott Johnson (108 6/8), 9th place – Jimmy Zbigniewicz (106 7/8), 10th place – Jeff Olson (104 4/8), 11th place – Danny Hellenbrand (90 1/8).
The membership fee for the upcoming season remained at $35, and the majority of our members paid their dues for the 2015 season – for those who didn’t, your $35 is due by August 1st, otherwise your membership is forfeited to a new member. The waiting list is ever-growing, so please get your dues paid as soon as possible. Thank you to all of those members that paid for next year at the banquet. Also remember that guest spots for the 2016 banquet are reserved on a first-come, first-serve basis, for $25 each, paid at the door. If you are interested in reserving a guest spot, please contact Gary Merkes at (608) 438-3786 or gary@arrowsandantlers.com, or contact Tommy Kempfer at (920) 723-2140 or tom@arrowsandantlers.com.
Thank you very much to all the members and sponsors who help make our annual banquet as anticipated and exciting as it is each year. We look forward to another great year of hunting and fellowship!
2014 Buck Entries
From left to right: Front Row – Jimmy Zbigniewicz (9th), Danny Hellenbrand (11th), Kevin Moreland (6th), Scott Johnson (8th), Back Row – Kevin Reis (2nd), Jeremy Gross (2nd), Mark Moehrke (4th), John Gross (1st), Fred Babino (5th), and Jon Landsverk (7th), Not Pictured – Jeff Olson (10th).