January 2024 News
Happy New Year! I can't wait to see you all at our Big Game Feast next month. Thank you, to all who have sent in photos of their harvests! Please keep sending them! We love to share them and congratulate you on a successful season. We've solidified our 3D shoot dates for this year, so make sure to read this month's announcements and mark your calendars.
Announcements:
3D Shoots
Get out your calendar and pen (or phone) and mark these dates. Our 2024 3D shoots will be on March 23rd, April 27th, May 18th, and our "Fall Tune-up" will be on July 27th. You can now find and share our shoot dates on our website's Events page here. A general overview of how our shoots work can be read by clicking on "View Event".
Big Game Feast
Our annual Big Game Feast is just around the corner, so mark your calendars now! This is our biggest event of the year and one of the primary ways we raise funds for the upkeep of the Dennis Hansen Archery Range. We’re excited to have everyone get together in person for good grub, storytelling, picture sharing, and fun! Colorado Youth Outdoors has generously offered to host us again this year on February 24th. Colorado Youth Outdoors is located at 4927 East County Road 36 in Fort Collins. The doors will open at 4:00 pm, with dinner starting at 5:00 pm. Please bring a main dish, side or dessert, large enough to feed 6 or more. We also encourage you to bring any serving utensils or warming devices you need for your dish! The club will be providing tables and extension cords for serving. Entry to this event is FREE and no RSVP required. Just show up with a dish to share and be ready to win awesome prizes. Please feel free to invite friends, family, co-workers and hunting buddies! They don't have to be a BTB member to attend.
The Board has begun gathering donations for our Big Game Feast. If you would like to donate something to this year's feast, please let us know by replying to this email. This will help us organize everything and be prepared. We’ll have raffle items big and small, for all ages. You can bring cash or use a credit card to purchase raffle tickets or place bids.
Open Board Officer Position
We are in need of a Secretary for 2024. The Secretary's primary responsibility is documenting meeting minutes and communication. They sometime handle other administrative tasks, but we all pitch in however we can with the skills that each of us bring to the table. If you have any interest in this position, please let me know by replying to this email. If you have any interest in attending board meetings, all BTB members are welcome to join us. You can view the Board Officers on our website here.
New Range Director
We all miss Dennis Hansen, more than words can express. His hospitality, generosity, wit, and the uncountable hours he put in every year working on our range were invaluable to us! Many people knew Dennis, but some were blessed to know him very well. One of those men is John Williams. John along with other longstanding members and past board officers such as Mike Fiscus, Wayne Depperschmidt, Dave Colter, Tracy and Helen Grzeskowiak have really helped our board survive the past year without Dennis! If it weren't for these men and women, we'd legitimately be "up a crick without a paddle"... or maybe a more appropriate analogy would be "out in the woods without an arrow". But I digress. At the Big Game Feast, the board would like to put to a vote that John Williams become our new Range Director. These are big shoes to fill and John has regularly admitted he can't "be Dennis" and we don't expect him to be. But I don't know anyone else currently as qualified, so he's got my vote. With the Hansen family's blessing, we've removed "Range Director" from Dennis' title on the website and changed it to "Range Namesake" and updated his bio. We hope you will all welcome John and help him maintain the future of this range and club.
Needing New Lane Sponsors
We have three Lane Sponsorships openings still available for 2024. If you are a business owner and looking for new ways to promote your business in Northern Colorado while supporting our club, consider becoming a Lane Sponsor at the Dennis Hansen Archery Range. You may have noticed the signs at each lane. These are generous sponsors of the Big Thompson Bowhunters. Each company makes a donation of $300/year or $500 for two years to sponsor a lane. We are extremely grateful for the companies that have chosen to support our club in this way! We have a few lanes that have become available and wanted to make this known to the entire club. Please email Tracy and Helen Grzeskowiak at grzeskowiakfam@lpbroadband.net if interested. Thank you
Matt Short – BTB President