It’s time to gun for orphans: Fund-raising event enters fourth year
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Benefiting from the fund-raiser will be some 500 orphaned and abandoned children in two Romanian orphanages.
The first of the two orphanages, located in Deg, a city in the Transylvania region of Romania, relies on the funds provided by the Breakfast Rotary Club for its very existence.
Privately run by a priest and two house mothers, the orphanage houses about 15 older children. Money raised in the tournament will be used to purchase such necessities as food, clothing, antibiotics and hygiene items for the children, as well as modest salaries for the house mothers.
“This Gunning for Orphans fund-raiser is critical to the orphanage we support,” said tournament chairman Dave Wideman. “If we don’t send the money, they don’t eat. These kids are without anything.”
The Breakfast Rotary Club also supports, in a smaller yet still vital way, a second orphanage, known as a “special school,” near the city of Targoveste. A government-run orphanage, it receives funding from Bucharest. However, as Romania is Third World nation, the funding provided is not enough to cover all the orphanage’s expenses. To help fill the gap, the club uses money raised by the tournament to provide the orphanage with additional medicine, clothes and sports equipment.
Those participating in Gunning for Orphans will have the opportunity to participate in a number of categories, the most popular of which is the sporting clays tournament in which $1,500 in cash prizes will be awarded.
For a $50 entrance fee, participants in this category, using their own guns and ammunition, will receive 50 shots on a five-station course. Prizes range from $500 for first place to $25 for eighth place. Prize money figures are based on a minimum of 25 entrants.
For those not wishing to compete, $10 will buy 10 shots in the beginner sporting clays category. Also for $10, participants can take part in a .22 rifle steel silhouette competition for which rifles and ammunition will be provided. No prize money will be awarded in the either the beginner sporting clays or steel silhouette categories.
Gunning for Orphans will be held all day Friday Oct. 3 and Saturday Oct. 4 at Viola Valley Shooting Range. Tickets can be purchased from any Breakfast Rotarian or at the Chamber of Commerce and Edward Jones Investments at 124 E. Main Street. Participants are encouraged to schedule a shooting time as soon as possible by calling Edward Jones Investments at 473-9615.
“Our club encourages those who have an interest in hunting, or enjoy the shooting sports, to join us at the Viola Valley Shooting Range. Come have some fun and fellowship and a chance to win some good prize money,” said Wideman.