Jim “The King” McCaffery, Treasurer, with raffle-meisters Garry Ervin and Murdock, celebrate their goal of raising over $100,000 at a single Friends of NRA event.

In early 2007, the Alaska Friends of NRA took a long hard look at their Anchorage Banquet. Anchorage is the biggest city in Alaska and has over a third of its population, yet the Anchorage banquet was nothing to write home about for many years. For example, in 2004 they had 155 people in attendance and netted just over $8,000.

A flash of brilliance hit State Fund Committee Chairman Scott Hamann: “What if we transformed the Anchorage Banquet into the Alaska State Friends of NRA Banquet?” This idea caught on like wildfire throughout the entire Alaska Friends of NRA. However, they did not just want to change the name, they wanted to rewrite the book. The goal of the Alaska State Friends of NRA banquet would be to have the biggest and the most exciting banquet in Alaska.

The Alaska State Committee is essentially comprised of two committees. The first is the “Ground Committee”, which includes those who live in Anchorage and the surrounding area. They do all the dirty work to put on the banquet such as selling tickets and sponsorships, getting underwriting, and providing a banquet hall, auctioneer and caterer. The second is made up of all the other Alaska Friends of NRA committees. They donate one item that can be used in the Live Auction.

To have a committee of this scope, size and objective, a strong leader is needed and that leader is Denny Hamann. He leads by example and has an incredible ability to break an obstacle down to its smallest parts and then eliminate them one by one. A strong leader is not the only part vital to creating an outstanding banquet; it also takes a strong committee, which the Alaska State Friends of NRA committee is.

The First Annual Alaska State Friends of NRA Banquet was held in October of 2007. The committee worked around the clock to ensure that their banquet was a success. All their hard work paid off as they held a fantastic, fun banquet and netted over $56,000. At the end of the night though when all the numbers were crunched, Hamann looked dejected. When asked why he responded, “I wanted $75,000!”

At the 2008 Alaska State Fund Committee meeting, the State Committee vowed that they would go over $100,000 in 2008. To do this, they would need the other committees pledging their support, which they unanimously received. They also needed to implement the 3-Legged Stool Plan taught to them by Western Region Director JP Nelson. First Leg — hold a successful pre-event raffle, Second Leg — sell out all dinner tickets, and Third Leg — get as many donations, underwriting and sponsorships as possible. If the Three Legs were solidly in place, then a successful banquet would be inevitable.

To build the First Leg, the committee planned a 50 gun pre-event raffle. Tickets would be $50 apiece and they would sell 1,500 tickets. With only $25,000 in guns they would net $50,000 once they sold out the raffle, which they ultimately did. The Second Leg was easier to build since the first Alaska State Banquet was a success. They were able to not only sell out their event tickets, but also sell them out one month prior to the banquet.

They approached the task of building the Third Leg like how they built all the others – divide and conquer. By dividing up local businesses and scouring the city they became so overwhelmed with donations that they sent some of their surplus to smaller committees in the Alaskan Bush. Their goal was to spend $0 on VDO merchandise and they accomplished their mission. They also brought in $6,205 dollars in underwriting and sold $11,000 in sponsorships.

While getting organized, the AK State Committee did some rough calculations and figured they had already netted over $70,000 and the doors yet weren’t even open yet! They couldn’t wait to get the banquet rolling.

On the night of the banquet, the doors opened at 5 PM sharp, and there were already attendees lined up at the door. As people flooded into the room, the bucket raffles ignited. The Silent Auction was rockin’ and rollin’ as the event raffle ticket sellers sold their tickets and the Heads or Tails game — always a big hit — was even bigger this year.

Just before the Live Auction, the committee presented their “Because of You” campaign that allowed the attendees to see how the money raised in 2007 was spent. Through a power point presentation, they showed pictures and used hard numbers to convey how many Alaskan children experienced the Eddie Eagle GunSafe^® program, how many Alaskan women attended the Women on Target^® program, and much more. The attendees not only enjoyed the presentation, but it also encouraged them to be even more generous.

The highlight of the evening; however, was the live auction. Because most of the live auction items were donations from other Alaska Friends of NRA committees, the committee only spent about $1,000 for items. The live auction raised over $28,000, more than enough to cover their expenses.

Needless to say, the Second Annual Alaska State Friends of NRA banquet was an astounding success. It ended up netting over $124,000 with only 375 people in the room — more than doubling what they did in 2007.

When asked what his secret to running a successful banquet is, Hamann replied, “It is no secret. Keep your costs down, always try to double your money at a minimum, and make it fun for the attendees!”

The creation of the Alaska Friends of NRA State Banquet not only brought in a tremendous amount of money to support the shooting sports, but it also brought every committee in Alaska together with the common goal of supporting The NRA Foundation. They are already planning their 2009 State Banquet and they promise it will be even greater next year. For the Alaska Friends of NRA, the sky is the limit!