Only in America can a High School and the local Lions Club host a fundraiser Gun Show and have it be the best thing ever! Actually all of the local high schools host gun shows here in the Matanuska Susitna Valley. It is a great way to involve the community and our schools in a safe way and raise a gob of money for the activities at the schools. Our gun show is co-hosted by Baseball and Hockey, but almost all of the schools activity groups participate in some way to raise funds for their groups. We have shooting classes, gun safety classes, and we even have a group whose sole purpose is to keep traditions alive from Pioneer days - muskets, black powder, axe throwing and the whole nine yards. They have gatherings every year called "Rendezvous" and they practice and teach the young 'uns the ways of old. They even dress in the style of the period! They have a booth at our show every year and they are such a fun group - always a big crowd at their spot. You can check out the McKinley Mountain Men Here!! Its really fun to see and it is fun for the community to see our kids doing things for the good of the whole not just for their one sport or team!
Above is me (on the left) and Carrie Smoldon with the quilt.
So... you ask... how does this involve the People Quilt and why would the people quilt go to the Gun Show? Well I'll tell you... security! Yes Security!!! The people quilt is my own personal security blanket of course, but that is not why it goes to the show. We provide overnight staffing for the gun show each night that there is gun show materials staying in the building. It is a voluntary venture as our National Guard folks who always bring super cool stuff to the gun show - Giant Hummers last year and super awesome big guns this year, for folks to check out - they have to stay with their equipment so they stay the night most of the time, but we also provide personnel just in case. We know the building a little better than they do and we dont have to get up at the bum crack of dawn and take a run! We usually dont even get up and do the morning yoga - Gun Show is exhausting people!
Freedom isn't free and if you haven't thanked a Service member please do so - especially this Memorial Day Weekend - but really every day of the week we should be thanking them for their sacrifice and their service.
Above is Carrie Smoldon and Michael Ann Carhart holding the people quilt in front of the archery target.
To make a short story long I guess, we sleep overnight at the Big Lake Lions Club Rec Center during the gun show! No way can I sleep without the People Quilt especially if I'm not sleeping at home. Hockey takes one night and Baseball takes the next night and the overlapping coaches go to the Baseball night - they have a game night that night and it's all guys. So I guess really we have a girls night and a guys night at gun show - but we are usually so tired that night from set up that we dont even make it through one whole "chick flick" before the People Quilt lulls me to sleep.
The People Quilt has been busy this year and this was actually the second Gun Show for the People Quilt - it went last year too but I forgot to take pictures that turned out worth viewing last year so it had to wait for this year's adventure at Gun Show.
I don't know how many more gun shows it will get to however, because Carrie and I both lay on the floor of the Rec Center on our sleep mats and comment on how we are too old for this &%$@! But every year we make some more memories at gun show, and we try to solve the world's problems in the middle of the night, beneath the twinkle lights that we cant figure out how to turn off and the People Quilt!
Thank you to all of our military and police service members for all that you do for our freedom and our safety, and so that we CAN have our gun show! May you be blessed.
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