Pheasant Heaven Charities Brings In $90,000 Plus

HUGOTON - Pheasant Heaven Charities hosted their 21st annual calf fry fundraiser November 8, and proved that regardless of rain or shine - the event would go on.

"It was a very successful event," said Pheasant Heaven Charities board member and Treasurer, Matthew Rome. "The numbers were down and the dollar amounts were down, but we were still successful."

According to Rome, last year was the best year the organization had ever had with the annual fundraiser.

"The total last year that we raised was $116,000," he said. "This year we were a little bit down, but we also had about 165 less people attend. In the past we have had 1,200 people come through the line, but we have also not made near as much money as we do sometimes with 800 people."

This year, the organization brought in $90,069 from the fundraiser, which had to contend with a lot of rain.

"We had a total of 661 people who paid to eat - that was down 165 from last year," Rome said. "We believe it was due to the weather."

Those who paid for dinner, which was by donation only, paid an average of around $27 and "some change" per plate, according to Rome. "That's more than we have ever averaged."

The live auction items brought in $42,440, with the highest ticket item being a Icon Golf Cart donated by Ghumm's Auto Center which brought in $13,000. Winning bidder was Hugoton Eagles Head Football Coach Jay Witt.

"His older (golf cart) he drove to school every single day," Rome said. "Hugoton allows you to drive them in town if you register them."

Witt, who retired after 37 years of coaching in Texas prior to moving to Hugoton, was visibly thrilled at winning the bid for the golf cart, letting out a "shout of success".

Other high ticket items in the live auction were an AR 15 Black Rain 5.56 NATIO FDE donated by Jim Mothes, for $3,200; and a Leupold Spotting Scope and Mount, donated by Pheasant Heaven, for $1,600.

Each year, organizers have a shuttle to transport attendees from a parking lot to the Southwest Fresh Potato building where parking is limited. This year, due to weather, that was changed.

"We usually don't do the shuttle bus to the extent we did this year," Rome said. "We usually just have one, but because of the rain, we asked USD210 and they provided us with some of their buses and a couple of drivers. It was a last minute decision to add more, but I'm glad we did it, because it was a muddy mess."

The buses ran throughout the time of the event taking attendees from the front door to their cars in a short amount of time.

Rome said originally they had checked with the hospital about a bus.

"We told them we might need to borrow their bus from Pioneer Manor," Rome said. "They said sure right away, but we ended up not needing it because of the school buses."

The willingness of  people to help is not new.

"The whole community comes together," Rome said. "We have never had anybody say, 'no, we're not interested in helping.'"

Others who helped pull the event together included volunteers from HLA (Hugoton Learning Academy), the local hospital ladies auxiliary, Corey Mirabal Scholarship members, the Pollyanna's, Hugoton 4-H, the Boyscouts, Hugoton football and wrestling teams, Haskell County 4-H, Rolla Junior class, and the Moscow Junior class.

Some of those who help out are in return helped out themselves.

"We actually support their groups," Rome said. "Some of them don't accept it, but we give them a little to help them with their fundraisers."

There were 25 volunteers who helped cook the food, which included calf fries, beef and pork. They, too, proved no matter what the obstacle - the event will go on.

"We did have some issues in the backroom with the smoker," Rome said. "Those poor guys who were cooking were there until 2 a.m. trying to diagnose the issue. We almost had a catastrophic event, but we are going to make sure next year it is corrected. One of the guys was able to get everything rolling this year."

Also on hand were the current reining Miss Sorghum Queen Mylee Miller and Miss Sorghum Miss Congeniality Morgan Niehues. The Miss Sorghum pageant has been a part of the Hugoton community since 1952.

According to Rome, those who typically attend the event come from a 50-mile radius of Hugoton. That radius is also where Pheasant Heaven Charities assists.

"We also have many people in town who come for pheasant season and they come to the event with people they know locally," Rome said.

Afterwards, the committee meets to have a "good, bad and ugly" session.

"We sit down and determine if we need to make changes or find solutions," Rome said. "Then, a couple of months prior to the next event, we will pull out the list we made and make sure we have addressed everything."

It is also the time to distribute funds.

"We automatically allocate $50,000 to $60,000 to the scholarship committee," Rome said. We also allocate $150,000 every year to the benevolent committee and another $150,000 to."

Once the money is distributed, each individual committee decides how they will use it.

"They have a process they go through to determine how they will spend the money," Rome said.

All requests for assistance from one of the three committees can be made through the Website - pheasantheavencharities.com.

"On the home page is a button that says 'need help'," Rome said. "It will prompt people to show them how to make a request. The requests are then sent to the appropriate committee and they determine, based on their guidelines, if they are able to help that individual or not."

Pheasant Heaven Charities calf fry fundraiser is set in stone each year - the Friday that is the day before the opening of pheasant season.They also host annual golf tournaments: one in Hugoton and one in Satanta. In February they have an annual "partners" meeting.

"We talk about the successes and things we have done," Rome said. "We talk to our 'partners' about what we are doing specifically with the money they contribute, so they know where it's going. We also do an award ceremony. It's more of a thank you to them for supporting us."

Each annual partner, according to Rome,  donates $1,000 to Pheasant Heaven Charities each year. There are currently 210 partners, accounting for $210,000  a year.

Rome and the others involved are all volunteers who care about their mission: to help those in need.

"Last year we celebrated 20 years - it's been a long time in the making," he said. "The group in charge now is kind of the changing of the guard."