The Banquet is Back!

After a three year hiatus brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual FVTU banquet returned to Grouse Mountain Lodge in Whitefish on Friday, May 5th. It was great to see old friends again and make new ones as over ninety guests attended the event. Traditionally held on the third Saturday in May, scheduling conflicts pushed us up a couple of weeks and into a Friday night slot, which coincidentally was Cinco de Mayo. To celebrate, the dinner menu featured south of the border fare and excellent do-it-yourself fajitas.

The annual banquet is our principal fundraiser of the year and the 2023 event was one of our most successful. Final figures aren’t in yet, but it looks like we took in over $35,000 making this one of, if not the most successful banquet ever. The Silent auction alone brought in close to $21,000.

Building on our successful use of Givergy the past two years to conduct our silent auction online, we combined the online silent auction with the live event so that supporters who couldn’t make it to Grouse Mountain could still bid. Our success was driven in large part by some really fantastic live and silent auction items including a fishing trip to Patagonia for two, a three day, two night trip on the Middle Fork for two, a Sweetgrass bamboo fly rod, several original artworks, and one of those world famous Huckleberry/Mixed Berry pies donated by Loula’s Cafe in Whitefish. In addition to the live and silent auctions, the banquet also featured the usual line up of a Hat Raffle, Compleat Angler Raffle, Bucket Raffle, door prizes and the drawing for the Aire raft.

The annual raft raffle is always a big hit. FVTU begins selling raft raffle tickets early in the spring in the run-up to the annual banquet. This year we gave away a 14′ Aire Super Duper Puma raft complete with frame and seats, a package worth over $7,500. The lucky winner was long time FVTU supporter Lee Kaufman. Congratulations Lee! We hope to see you on the river this summer.

For many of us the highlight of the evening was when we honored special guest Dan Olson. Dan was our longest serving FVTU Board member, having dedicated more than two decades to our local coldwater fisheries. If you or one of your kids ever took a beginners fly tying course offered by FVTU then you probably met Dan. He was a fixture at those classes as well as at virtually any other event the chapter held. Dan only recently stepped down from serving on the board. We will miss his knowledge, enthusiasm and dedication to the cause and wish him only the best going forward.

We can’t express how great it felt to get back together and enjoy the camaraderie and fellowship that only comes from meeting face to face. If you missed it, we hope you’ll join us in 2024 when we continue the tradition.

Of course you can’t pull off a successful event like this without a lot of help. A tip of the hat to the small army of FVTU volunteers who spent hours (days?, weeks?), preparing the website, designing the flyers, spreading the word, soliciting donations, setting up the raffle tables, working the floor, and getting items to the winning bidders who were not present. Our biggest and most heartfelt thanks goes to the many donors who so graciously and generously donated to our banquet. Without their help we couldn’t have done it: American Bank, Baker River Lodge/Eduardo Barrueto Guarda, Bias Brewing Co., Bitterroot Nets, Carl Inselman, Drayton Osteen, Flathead Rivers Alliance, Forloh, George Widener, Givergy, Glacier Anglers/Glacier Raft Co., Glacier Bank, Glacier Guides/Montana Raft Co., Griffin Enterprises, Justin Lawrence, Lakestream Fly Shop, Lary’s Fly and Supply/Hilary Hutcheson, Lee Jester, Leo Rosenthal, Linehan Outfitting/Tim and Joanne Linehan, Lodge at Whitefish Lake, Loula’s Cafe, Meadow Lake Golf Course, Merrill Lynch, Montana Fly Co., Montana Raft Frames, RightOnTrek, Rob Akey, RussTekWood/Russ Hobbs, Sacred Waters Brewing, Snappy Sports Senter, Sportsman Ski Haus, Sweetgrass Rods, True Water Fly Shop, Trxstle, Whitefish Credit Union, Whitefish Mountain Resort, Xanterra Travel Collection. THANK YOU ALL!

See You Next Year!