2014 Banquet Recap

[Scott McKee]

20^th Anniversary Banquet Report: The Short Version

Wow!

20^th Anniversary Banquet Report: The Slightly Longer Version

WOW!!

20th Anniversary Banquet Report: The Slightly, Slightly Longer and A-Little-bit Larger Version

WOW!!!

20^th Anniversary Banquet Report: This Joke is Getting Old Version

I would like to thank each and every one of you who attended and contributed to our 20^th Anniversary Banquet!  Thanks to you, and your unbelievable generosity, yesterday’s Prom was our most successful ever – by far and away.  I’m sure Scott Kitchen will have all of the stats soon, but let’s just say we are sitting rather comfortably for the rest of the year. 

The word around the banquet campfire was that it was our best banquet ever.  I am overwhelmed with the incredible support you all showed our club.  To be honest with you, I couldn’t have been happier if someone had wheeled in a bathtub full of ice cream with Baker, Toothy and Perchbait sprinkles, with a Perrywinkle on top!

Here’s a quick award recap:

John Henning Memorial Award: To honor the memory of John Henning, “the undisputed heavyweight champion of the Lower River”, we recognized Frank Alcorn and his 45.5” JHMT winning musky; the largest caught from the lower by one of our members last year.  Nice work, Frank!

Mr. Toothy Award: Carrie Keane was showed much love by our master lure creator, Jim Reynolds, who presented her a Lex Luther Toothy for her 52” Niagara River queen.  On the back of Carrie’s Top Ten hat reads, “FISH LIKE A GIRL”.  This is advice we should all take from time-to-time.

Bill Mendel President’s Award: Mike Fortunate is one of my go-to guys, and even though he was shocked when I announced he was this year’s recipients, he is more than deserving of this honor.  Thanks Mike!

Tim Wittek President’s Award: Frank Stachowiak was our Lure and Raffle Director for many years, and he still works tirelessly to create new opportunities for our club to acquire deals and donations for all of the toys we covet as our Promotions Director.  Frank has been one of our best and most hardworking members ever, and awarding him the Wittek award is the very least I could have done to thank him for all of his efforts.  Thank you, Frank, for all of the work you’ve done on our behalf!

NMA Memorial Award: There were only two nominees this year for our most prestigious award – Rich Sandig and Scott Kitchen – which goes to show you how important both of these men are to the success of the NMA.  The Memorial Award recipient is voted on by our members and is given to the member who we feel best exemplifies our ideals.  The truth is either of the nominees is deserving of this award every single year, but this year’s recipient was our Treasurer, Conservation Director and Conservation Committee Chairman, Scott Kitchen.  Marc Arena presented the award to Scott, and I like the way Marc described Scott: passionate and intense.  Scott pursues many things in his life with these adjectives in mind, and we are very fortunate that he does so with the NMA.  Congratulations, Scott, on this much deserved honor!

NMA Hall-of-Fame Inductee: Tony Scime inducted our latest member to our Hall-of-Fame in a “legendary” speech that captured Jojo’s near-mythical status?  I don’t want to waste my best sappy prose about this year’s inductee right now??   I will save that for our next newsletter???  But, CONGRATULATIONS to Joe Wilczewski, our hardest working member ever????? Alabalabala? Iggo-out????

The food and drink were wonderful.  The service was impeccable.  The raffles were beyond amazing.  We gave some hardware to some very deserving members.  But, and it’s a big BUT, the best part of last night’s event was the people.  Catching up with members we haven’t seen in far too long, meeting members and their spouses and friends for the first time, and hanging out with all of the wonderful friends we’ve made over the years because of the NMA, and EACH AND EVERY PERSON in attendance  made last night’s banquet the very, very best we’ve ever had.  Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!

PS: I don’t think we need a Pig-Out this year!  (And that may be the most wonderful  sentence I’ve ever typed.)

[Mike "the facilities" Fortunate]

I love the JoJo lingo??? Lol

[104pbcexobzwh]

With this being my first banquet I was totally blown away.Raffle table was awesome.

Food was awesome, couldn't believe there was an open bar. Not sure how you guys can afford to do it with only $40 a plate. I know I drank $40 worth of mixed drinks!

Well organized, top notch, hats off to Scott and all of you that contributed.

Plus.....got to talk about muskies and muskie fishing all night! Super!!!

 

THANKS!!!!!!!!!

[Scott McKee]

I'm glad you had a great time, Frank!  I appreciate everyone who supports the club and attends our banquets, but even more so when they have to travel a decent distance to do so.  You and your wife (whose name escapes me (I'm terrible at that (sorry))), Jim and Edie,  Harry and Susan from PA, Rich, Dax, Mike, Kurt and their significant others from Ontario, didn't just have to drive downtown to attend, and I am really glad you did, and your extra effort really means a lot to me.