By Merle Monahan/Contributing Writer
merlemonah@aol.com

IVOR—The second Annual Sportsman’s Gun Bash, sponsored by the Ivor Volunteer Fire Department, drew an estimated 150 people Saturday, March 9, nearly doubling last year’s total, said fire department president, Frank Britt.

“We are very happy with the turnout,” he added. “We haven’t determined how much money we raised, but we’re sure it exceeded last year.”

The gun bash, a fundraiser, is basically a raffle, where ticket holders have a chance to win a new firearm or some other type of hunting equipment. The Ivor department sold 500 tickets at $40 each, giving each ticket holder a chance to win one of 20 prizes.

Winners must pick up their prizes at the store from which they were purchased, and go through the same background check as any customer.

Fireman Bryan Grasser, chairman of the gun bash committee, explained, “We follow all the rules. Our guns are for hunting only; we will never have any sort of assault weapon or the like.”

Grasser said this year’s event was different from last year’s in that it was larger and better.

“There were more sponsors and more prizes. We have a lot of young people come out, so we try to have things they would be interested in. Our sponsors were kind enough to donate prizes they would like.”

He continued, “We also stress safe hunting and fire safety, especially for the young people, so we borrowed the fire safety trailer from the Franklin Fire Department and gave lectures to our future firemen and women.”

Britt said almost all businesses in the area donated door prizes, including Crawford’s Small Engine Shop, the Hair Station, DeWitt’s Automotive, the Virginia Diner, Zimmerman’s, the Fishing Hole and Felts Packing, to name a few.

Prizes were drawn every five minutes from when the event began at 2 p.m. Long-time fireman, Charles Stallard, drew tickets for the big prizes.

The winner of the grand prize, a Browning Maxus 12 Ga. Synthetic Stock Shotgun, was not available for comment. This prize was given away just before the doors closed at 7 p.m.

“We are very fortunate to have our community supporting us,” said Britt, “and we want them to know that we appreciate it.”