Men gather for 40th Hunters Harvest charity meal
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ALPENA -- Five hundred guys.
One thousand pounds of meat.
And $70,000 raised in one glorious night of men doing manly things and, in the process, taking care of their community.
Hunters Harvest for Charity, a local-built organization of 35 men with a heart for helping other people, on Friday served its 40th annual stag dinner, a fundraising event that in recent years has generated $70,000 to $80,000.
All profits from the dinner have gone straight into the community, according to Mark Boyk, Hunters Harvest president.
"We're just trying to help people in dire need," Boyk said. "It's the right thing to do."
In past years, the organization has given money to family members desperate to visit a loved one undergoing cancer treatment, to people facing a tough time and empty propane tanks, and to folks who lost life necessities to a house fire.
Food pantries receive about a third of the profits of the annual men-only dinner, the group's only fundraising event.
The organization's members keep an eye out all year for people who might need their financial help and whose lives they can impact in a meaningful way.
"Here, here's a shot in the arm," Boyk said. "It won't fix everything, but it'll help."
At the APlex on Friday, a low roar of men's voices filled the room as 550 in flannel, denim, and ball caps eyed tables full of silent auction and drawing items -- guns, cowboy boots, snowshoes, a fishing sled, more guns, a beer cooler, drills, more guns.
Booklets of drawing tickets, at $200 each, sold out quickly, as had tickets for the event shortly after they went on sale in December.
A table of appetizers -- cheese cubes and meat, without a fruit plate or veggie tray in sight -- flanked a simple bar with well-filled tip jar.
As the emcee valiantly fought to corral the crowd into their seats, men talked to other men about ammunition, hunting season, big-screen televisions.
Hundreds of hats flicked off of heads as the room silenced for an opening prayer and the singing of the national anthem. The hats plopped back into place, and the first live auction item of the night was put up for bid -- the right to be the first table through the food line.
In a nearby room, warming pans full of elk meatballs, shaved bear and venison, and chunks of tender rabbit meat lined three long tables. Men forked their plates full, most topping the pile with a 2-inch-thick slab of prime rib and a spoonful of horseradish.
Those waiting their turn revisited the drawing items, inspecting the $1,500 Browning Medallion rifle and fat-tired electric bike. Tickets, purchased at a steep price but with much good nature, were dropped into buckets -- not nicely decorated boxes with thematic colors and cute lettering, but buckets, guy-style, with holes cut in the lids.
White-bearded men, 20-somethings carrying two plates at once, fathers cutting their sons' meat and making them feel like one of the guys -- the room overflowed with manliness.
After 40 years of serving a giant meal to a no-girls-allowed crowd, watching cost of admission go from five bucks to $60 dollars and profits skyrocket, Boyk is confident the men of Alpena have a great deal to offer their community.
"I think we're doing something right," Boyk said.