The Sporting Clay shoot coordinating committee meets tomorrow, Wednesday, April 7, at the Feedlot Steakhouse. They will make the final plans for this year’s clay shoot.

Sponsorship sales are about the same as last year. We brought in $16,570 last year and so far this year we have received $16,090 in commitments. Depending on the auction and raffle, this will be another good year.

Currently, we have 49 sponsors—two food underwriters, 16 corporate sponsors, 12 station sponsors, nine youth sponsors, and ten auctions sponsors. Hayden Gregg has signed again to be the food underwriter and Homewood Residence will furnish salad and potatoes. The corporate sponsors are Suwannee Supply, Alexander & Marek, Ruth Constant, Crossroads Abstract & Title, Paving, Chesnick Furniture, Texas Glass & Tinting, First Victoria National Bank, Jack Whitmire, SCCI Hospital, AEP-American Electric Power, Calvo’s Janitorial & CLEAN ALL, Speedy Stop, Pryor Sales & Service, Victoria Eye Center, and Zarsky Lumber—all repeats from prior years except AEP. Blackwood Toyota is back again this year upgrading to a station sponsor. The others are Victoria Business Magazine, The Victoria Advocate, HEB, Victoria OMS Associates, Shirley Breedlove, Barbara Briggs, and Bruce Bauknight & David Drost, Friendly Oaks Bed & Breakfast, Pat Pachta State Farm, DeTar Healthcare System, and Anderson Smith Null & Stofer. Cole, Cole & Easley along with Truman Transfer & Storage, Frost Insurance Agency, Glass Doctor of Six Flags, Frost Insurance, The Westermeier Company, Associated Engineering & Surveying, Wells-Fargo, Equistar Chemicals, and BHP Engineering & Construction are our youth sponsors. Janecka Insurance, Carole Parks, Fagan Answering Service, Gerald Parker, Hodgkinson PC, Victoria’s House of Lamps, Armstrong Warehouse & Transfer, R.E. Clegg, and Interiors by Sherry have made donations to our auction.

There have been no major changes in the format; we will continue like in prior years—Boys & Girls Club youth activities, shooter registration, shooter practice, steak dinner, and auctions on Saturday and the shoot on Sunday.

For the those who have joined the club since our last clay shoot, we set up a sporting clay course on the last weekend of April at Dr. John Beck’s ranch. The course consists of five stations each with two traps. The types of clay targets vary to represent upland game hunting. There are small, fast targets representing doves, large targets hopping along the ground like rabbits, and standard targets thrown at different angles like quails. The station sponsorships get a sign at each of these stations. Our corporate sponsors may send five shooters to participate in the event. Everyone practices on Saturday, then, on Sunday, every shooter shoots 10 targets at each station to determine his or her shooting class. The event is closed with a shoot-off in each class for trophies and the distribution of the Calcutta pot.

On Saturday night we have a steak dinner for club members and shoot participants and two auctions. One is a charity auction of donated items; the other is a Calcutta where shooters volunteer to be sold at auction. The money is put in a pot and divided among the buyers of the top two shooters in each of four classes.

In addition to the sponsors and auction we have another revenue center—the raffle. The Boys & Girls Club puts it together and we are expected to sell a book of tickets for each of our members. The Club Board approved charging members for one book of tickets and distributing the tickets in the April Quarterly bill. Members may enter the raffle, sell the tickets and pocket the money, or simply donate the $20.

Make sure you sign to work on the last weekend of this month, April 24 &25. ▲