Roger McNear updates us on the Dave Vice Memorial Shoot April 29!
Roger McNear updates us on the Dave Vice Memorial Shoot April 29!
And we are back at the Grand Lodge annual communication we have with us now. Roger McNair former, uh, board chair of Minnesota Masonic Charities, and he's here to promote an event that has, uh, grown in popularity and success over the last few years. Also, join us as, uh, Marcus Mueller, who is our development associate for Masonic Charities in Northern Minnesota. He's got the coolest voice of anyone that we've, uh, done a podcast with. So enjoy that. Welcome gentlemen. Thank you. And, uh, thank you very much. Tell us a little bit, Roger, about this, event that you've, uh, that you've been putting on. I, I must say that I myself have participated in the event a number of. And I will tell you about what an adventure that was. It was an adventure. Of course, John not growing up with firearms was a little overwhelmed and under underprivileged, just think under, under duress too. I was under duress. I, I kind of forced him to do it, but he made a good showing. He came out and he helped fund some, some of our donations to the Masonic Children's. And the Shrine camps for kids. So, which is the diversion project. Yeah. And, and when did this start? And it's called the Dave Vice Memorial Shoot. Dave Vice Memorial Sporting Plays, shoot, sporting plays. Shoot. Okay. It, it started 13 years ago when I got the idea of putting it together to raise money for the, um, Masonic Children's Hospital. Okay. At the University of M. And we put it together. The first year we had a decent showing. It was up in Pine City at Wings North and it stayed there for six years, and then we joined with Bill Vice and the Shrine Children's Clinics. In Twin Cities and providing diversion programming through their camps. Now, it was Dave Bill's dad. Dave was Bill's brother. Yeah. Bill's brother, okay. Yep. Dave was treated for cancer at the Masonic Cancer Cancer Center. Okay. As was Bill's dad and one of Bill's sisters. Okay. Yeah. They have a genetic proclivity towards. Cancer. Well, that's not fun. No, no. And so that was Bill's impetus for joining the program in the first place. And we've moved forward from there and added the Shrine Children's Clinics so that kids with physical disabilities as well as all the medical disabilities that are treated at Children's Masonic or Masonic Children's. Sure. I love it. Yeah. Received some funding, so over the. We've raised almost$300,000 Wow. For kids' health, and we presented both to Masonic Charities as our funnel towards Masonic Children's Hospital and through the Zurich Shrine, rod and Gun Club to the, uh, Children's camps. my lasting memory of participating in this event was I brought my son, Ben. Who had never fired a gun in his life and he showed you up big time. Well, what happened was is the first station that we were at had the little guy that runs a little bunny, is that what they call it? The little bunny? The rabbit? Yep. The rabbit bunny. It's Easter season. No. the rabbit is running across the ground and it does this little. And I'll never forget the very first shot that Ben took. He hit the rabbit and he turned around and kind of gave me this look. Like, what's so hard about this? Well, I've seen Ben hit a golf ball, so I know he is got good eye hands. Well, he, he can hit a golf ball. But let's say that, uh, he had significant beginners'. Because, uh, there wasn't a lot of looking back at Dad for the next few times he pulled the trigger. it's just such a well run program now, this year's event is when and where? It's April 29th, Saturday at the Minnesota Horse and Hunt Club in Pryor Lake. Um, registration starts at eight 30 in the morning. The shoot starts at 10 30. Lunch at no. Or 1230 and then we have games and raffles and whatever, trying to get more funds to promote kids health. Is there still room to participate? Yes, there is. Um, last year we accommodated little over 200 shooters, holy cow. And shooters and guests, and we were able to, Close to$40,000 last year. Over 30. Wow. Wonderful. So we're shooting for 40 this year. Shooting for 40. See what he did there? Yeah. See that? Very punny, very clever. That's like selling raffle tickets and saying you got$40 in your wallet. Yeah, he did that to me just the other day at lunch. Hey, got 40 bucks in your wallet and just happened. And, uh, I think he only needed to sell me$20 worth of raffle tickets, but, uh, but double your money. Double your money. Yeah. The, the, your chances are twice as many. Chances of winning are much better. Yeah. So how many spaces do you have left for this year? Oh, we'll take unlimited numbers. Almost. There's four sporting plays courses at. Uh, Minnesota Horse and Hunt 10 stations per course, and teams are, are running about five shooters and we run'em at the same time simultaneously. And anybody can join shooters or first timers. That's just fine. Yeah, it's, it's open to everybody. It's not a competition, it's a fundraiser and it's to have a good time. We get some of the kids from the Shrine Children's Hospital or. Children's Clinic. Clinic, yep. Um, that come and participate and the kids have a great time. I'm trying to get my grandson to help and shoot at the same time. So where can they find, uh, information or who do they call? If they want to, uh, to, to reserve a spot in the, uh, in the field, they can email vice east bethel msn.com and get, uh, All the information that they need, and we have posters, flyers up everywhere. So that's Vice V I C V E C E, east East Bethel, Bethel msn.com. msn.com, okay. Yeah. And let's get the date one more time. This is April 29, is that correct? April 29. Registration at eight 30. Shooting at 10 30 or 10 o'clock. I mean, I'm sorry. Lunch starts at 1230. And a fun time will be had by everybody who participates. Now, while we, uh, have Marcus on the, on the horn here, there's an event coming up for the, uh, the clinic. Not necessarily a big fundraising event, but it is indeed a, uh, a fundraising event would probably be the best way to describe it. That's a very good way to put it. A friend crazy. That's what I do, because we, that's what I do. Punny of you as well. Very punny. Yes. We have an open house at the clinic, uh, the Masonic Children's Clinic for Communication Disorders. We have over the past year, past two years tried to achieve more community awareness and the open House contributed to that. Last year, obviously, the children's clinic has been supported mostly by the fraternity, by Scottish Wright Masons. Yep. But last year we had, uh, more than half of the visitors and the open house. We're not Masons, which is important because we treat anybody in the community and once they enter the clinic and see what is done there, they are, uh, fascinated by what we have been doing for 30 years. So we have this open house event on May 18. Okay, so Thursday. On a traditional Scottish right night in Duluth, so we have a little bit of the roots left there still. Okay? But it's an open house from four to six. We will serve, uh, some light food, okay. And beverages. But the most important thing is that the clinic is open for tours so that those that haven't seen it yet are able to see the clinic and see what we do and how, as we say, Try to give children a voice. I, uh, I must let you know that, uh, that date I discovered yesterday is the date of my daughter's final gymnastics banquet. And let's just say I would be considered persona non grata if I wasn't at that event because, They do a big celebration of the, the high school seniors. So I will be cheering you on from, uh, from Lake Elmo. You're very honorably excused. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Um, yeah, we're looking very much forward to it. It's not a fundraiser as you said. Um, but we would like to, it's to connect people. We would, we would like to connect, you know, give, give us the gift of your interest and give us the gift of your influence in the local community. That is what we need at this point to, uh, Groundswell of awareness for the clinic. And you can be certain at some point in the future, we will give people the opportunity to make the gift of their investment, of course, in the work that we do, but they can't make an investment if they don't know what's going on. Absolutely not, which is why we put it on for double M, triple C, D as well as for Mason children. So Double M, triple C D is the Minnesota Masonic Children's Clinic for Communication Disorder. These acronyms? Something like that. Something like that. It is. I just call it the clinic. The clinic. It's so much easier. But then there are so many clinics, but I live in Duluth. It's the clinic, so this is the clinic. It's the clinic for us. Excellent. Well, uh, good luck for the Dave Vice Memorial shoot. I will be seventh annual, And, uh, the, uh, the open house at the clinic, the clinic at the clinic on May 18th. Yep. Looking forward to that as well. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you for having us, and off we go. Thank you for having us, John.