Ducks Unlimited Fort Nelson Tops province for increased earnings

Ducks Unlimited Fort Nelson Tops province for increased earnings

By Kathy Smith

Approximately 140 attended the annual Ducks Unlimited dinner banquet and fundraiser, held at the recreation centre on Saturday March 29th. This year, Fundraising Manager Ken Ferris was pleased to report that Fort Nelson produced the largest per cent increase in net income from two years ago to last year, earning them top spot in the province for the increase.

Ferris says, “I think their net dollars last year was just shy of $30,000 and the year before was $18,000 so they had a really big increase – they had probably grossed closed to $40,000 so it was awesome.” He adds, “Earnings come from ticket sales, live and silent auctions, raffles – the whole event minus expenses like meals etc. And this year’s event grossed $36,000.”

Last year Ducks Unlimited Canada celebrated its 75th year, and they are currently in their 18th year of organising the event in Fort Nelson. “This couldn’t occur for the three years the town was without a recreation centre, but now we’ve got this nice new venue and everything is great! This will be our third year in the new venue.”

District Chair and Chair of the Chetwynd event, Ray Huscroft joined Ferris in Fort Nelson. He’s been helping with events for approximately six years, and says, “It’s nice to come to a place where it’s almost like they’re starting over (after Rec Centre collapse). It’s just nice to have helped get them going again, and we always enjoy the drive here.”

Ferris is in his 12th year as Ducks Unlimited Fundraising Manager for Northern BC.

He takes care of approximately 25 out of the 60 events held each year in BC. His area covers two-thirds of the province, spanning from from 100 Mile House and up, across to Valemount and out to Haida Gwaii. There are about 500 events held Canada-wide each