Staff
Thanks to an injection of some newer, younger blood, things are looking up for both the membership of Rimbey Fish and Game and Mother Nature.
With an increase in numbers estimated between 60 and 70 per cent above the same time last year, the membership now sits at 159 and if all goes as planned, the numbers will continue to grow throughout 2010.
“I’m loving it,” said club president Daryl Hunt. “For this past year and the coming year we have new people coming in with new ideas and it’s great when any club or organization has new members coming in because it gets more ideas on the table and more workers, more young workers.”
Hunt credits the growth of the club to the inception of a junior program last year that is paying big dividends this year and into the future. With such a sudden boost in the ranks, another problem has arisen, however the current membership agrees that it’s a nice problem to have.
“Our membership is up from a year ago. From 2008 to 2009, it just about doubled and we hope to increase on that this year,” he said. “We’re hoping to get into a different facility for our next meeting because the club has grown to the point where we haven’t got anymore room where we are now at the Smithson International Truck Museum.”
While the addition of junior members has been welcomed, the club still stresses the importance of parental involvement, but they’re more than willing to help out as much as possible.
“The juniors have to be accompanied by an adult when they’re out in the field hunting and that can be taken care of by our mentoring program through the father or a Rimbey Fish and Game member, whoever has time to mentor these youngsters and get them started in hunting and fishing,” Hunt said. “We try to have the parents of the kids involved in our programs. For example, in our youth program we insist that the parents be involved so that the senior members of the club are not babysitting.”
During their recent annual general meeting, the club held elections to fill a number of executive and director positions and to discuss plans for the upcoming fishing and hunting seasons as well as a few special events.
On Feb. 18, 19 and 20, Hunt, along with junior co-ordinator Sandra Von Hollen and member Allan Muddle head to Edmonton to attend provincial meetings.
“It’s one of our major conferences where we deal with resolutions and go over a lot of things that happened over the year and discuss it as a group,” Hunt said. “During the conference, we also get to meet a lot of the other clubs and find out ideas that they’re doing to move the clubs forward, so we all work hand in hand.”
In March, the club has plans to take the junior members to Gull Lake for a day-long fishing adventure and will continue their tradition of sending two or three eligible juniors to Ponoka to attend firearm safety courses.
The club will also continue with their improvement work at Open Creek west of Rimbey and will host the annual Seniors Day in August at that location with the intent of honouring seniors along with former members, current members and long-term patrons of Open Creek’s many camping and recreational vehicle sites.
Another major event for Rimbey Fish and Game is their annual Antler Measuring and Hide Collection night that began in 1962 at the same time the club was first incepted.
“It goes up and down,” Hunt said of the number of entries they receive. “It depends on the harvest. Some years there’s not as many animals taken and the next year there’ll be a full slate with 15, 20 or more sets of antlers to score.”
Those scores, along with more taken during fishing season, are tabulated with the winners receiving trophies at the club’s awards night, which will be held on March 13 at the Seniors Drop-In Centre.
The new executive for Rimbey Fish and Game includes president Daryl Hunt, vice-president Ken Holland, secretary Sandra Von Hollen, treasurer Pat Muddle and directors Allan Muddle, Rance Curtis, Sandy Curtis, Shirley Dudenhoeffer, Vivian Holland, Rob Blondin, Hank Winters and Lloyd Yarbrough.