By Justin Gottschalk
CALLICOON — April 12, 2005 – The third annual National Wild Turkey Federation Heritage Banquet was held by the Sullivan County Longbeards on Saturday night at the Villa Roma’s Clubhouse restaurant.
Auctions, raffles, video montage and dinner were all on the agenda.
Bill Tatro, who is the Regional Director of the National Wild Turkey Federation, was the evening’s emcee.
“Our turnout is good tonight,” said banquet organizer and Sullivan County Longbeards member Hank D’Auria. “We have 140 people [here]. All the money we raise goes to handicapped youths nationwide.”
Parksville resident and Sullivan County Longbeards member Patrick Gorman explained that there are “two types of auctions” at the banquet.
“We have the silent auction, where you go out and write your bid down, and we also have items that will be auctioned off in a live auction with an auctioneer,” Gorman said.
Not surprisingly, the main course at dinner was turkey.
The raffle was held during dessert. It featured such items as a heavy-duty tackle box, a meat dehydrator and a camouflaged turkey rifle.
After dinner, the guests watched a “turkey tease” video depicting the release of several particularly seductive specimens into habitats that looked suspiciously like Sullivan County’s. Then veterans were asked to stand up and be recognized and were given pins amid applause.
D’Auria mentioned an upcoming event for the Longbeards: their “Jake’s Day.” This year’s event is going to be held on August 27 at the Grahamsville Fairgrounds.
“Everything is free for the kids,” D’Auria said. “We have raffles, we teach them how to turkey-call. Everything is oriented around kids and habitat.”