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Event: Date: Location: |
Red White & Blue Veterans 20th Annual Banquet 19 November, 2024 Bastrop, Texas |
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LOCATION: Bastrop County Convention Center, Bastrop TX
DATE: 9 November 2024
Members of the Lone Star Military Vehicle Preservation Asso. Were requested to support the Bastrop 20th Annual Veterans Banquet. This will be our sixth year to support this event. Club POC is Madison H. Attendees were Domingo M, Rory C, Sid M, Jim H and James H with wife. Weather was good no rain. The club provided the M16, Helmet, Dog Tags, Boots and Sand Bags Memorial display. It was placed on the stage as requested by the event coordinators. Club members were dressed in uniforms or club "T" shirts. Big thanks to Danny K for the loan of his M16 memorial.
Display set-up began at 3:00 pm with our military vehicles being parked under the Building front porch. All our members assisted each other being ground guides and placing tarps under the vehicles to catch any oil leaks! Care was taken driving over the curb as not leave black tire marks. Vehicles were Rory's M1028A2 Truck and M116A3 HSTRU Trailer, James H had his Scorpian DPV (Desert Patrol Vehicle) no formal nomenclature was ever established for them. Madison H's M37A1 Radio Truck.
Event started at 5:00 PM with guests being seated by the Bastrop JROTC young men and women. The NROTC were very helpful seating the 573 guests. 463 Tickets sold with 114 free tickets were given out. The 50/50 cash Raffle brought in $2,028 Cash with $599.00 of it going to the winners. The main raffle brought in $2,662 with $184 event coin sales.
The inside display included military Ordnance, and other Military equipment.
The Ordnance display's by Domingo and Rory were well visited and lots of questions. James H's display of the Military Chaplin equipment was of special interest to many of the women. Madison H's display of fire arms were well visited. Madison's Wife and Daughter supported him as security for the weapons.
When the call to Dinner started the LSMVPA members started the removal of the Displays. This is done at the start of the meal serving because very few people visit the display during the serving or dinner. The guests were seated at table in the main room and were seated before the guest speaker went on stage.
The Event had A Guest speaker, CW3 JP Cenvantes, USA, Special Forces retired.
In the auditorium during the meal being served many activates were going on. The veterans participated in a silent auction. Pledge to the legion, salute to the flag. During the event a large screen projector showed slides of Veteran related photos many supplied by the attending veterans. This is a great photo History that these veterans took part in. This year the event was videotaped. At the close of the event the M16 Memorial was recovered by club members.
The Financial report shows that the event will have $ 10,500 after Expenses. This money will be divided between many VFW, JROTC Bastrop and Elgin and other Veteran Organizations. The money will only go to those organizations who have shown in the past good judgement of the use of the donations to help Veterans.R/W/B has $11,727.14 Start up money for next years event.
Thanks to all the club members who participated in this event. I have already received a good review from the organizers and a request to do it again next year. They said do it just like this year and you will get the front of the building for your displays. However due to Madison H's age he will only bring a vehicle to future events. He will still attend the meeting and try to support other's doing Displays.
Photo's by Madison H