Hundreds attend annual banquet at Memorial Center

The 27th annual Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Lincoln County chapter banquet filled the Libby Memorial Center last Saturday.

“The event was a great success,” Jared Wold, Western Montana regional manager, said. “When everything is said and done, we are going to have raised $49,000. That is really impressive for this area.”

The event is a major attraction for its expansive raffle drawings, silent auctions, roast beef dinner, cash bar and live auction.

Oh, and the weapons.

 Fourteen guns and bows were raffled away at the event. Many frequenters reveled in the high ratio of attendees to prizes.

Founded in 1984 by four hunters from Troy, the foundation as since grown to over 196,000 members nationwide.

Since 1985, the foundation and its partners completed 770 different conservation and hunting heritage outreach projects in Montana with a combined value of more than $132.6 million.

In 2013, the foundation worked to treat noxious weeds on 250 miles of Lincoln County roads and release insects on 1,000 acres of elk winter range across swaths of private, state and federal lands as part of a three-year project. The foundation also worked to implement noxious weed treatment on 22 acres of winter elk range in the Kootenai National Forest.

“We are already looking forward to next year’s event,” Wold said. “It is always a fun event for the community.”