by Merle Monahan
Contributing Writer
merlemonah@aol.com

IVOR
The sixth annual Sportsman’s Gun Bash fundraiser held last weekend at the Ivor Volunteer Fire Department drew an estimated 175 people, according to IVFD president Frank Britt.

“It was one of our biggest crowds, with people attending from as far away as Newport News, Hampton, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake,” Britt said.

He added that the gun bash has grown to be the department’s major event to raise money for the volunteer organization.

Starting at 1 p.m., there were raffles for door prizes, children’s prizes and larger prizes donated by local businesses. In the gun category, there were 19 guns with one compound and one cross-bow to be raffled.

Britt said the guns were to be picked up by winners at the store from which they were obtained. He added that all gun winners were required to go through background checks when they picked up their prizes as if they had actually purchased the gun.

He noted that organizing the bash takes a lot of work and cooperation and commends the department for doing such a good job.

“But mostly, we are grateful for the support we get from our community,” he said.

“We’ve always had good attendance and the donations from our local businesses are wonderful, well worth the price of the raffle ticket.

The grand prize, outside of the gun category, was a “Big Green Egg” grill, donated by the Ivor Furniture Company and won by Jay Billups of the Ivor Fire Department. Second prize, a Husqvarna chainsaw donated by Crawford’s Small Engine Sales of Ivor, was won by Devin Butler of the Carrsville Fire Department.