Kilgore DU banquet set for June 5
OUTDOORS
From special reports

"Derricks and Ducks," the Fourth Annual Kilgore Ducks Unlimited Banquet, is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, June 5, at Bodacious Bar-B-Q, located at Interstate 20 and Highway. 42. The Kilgore DU committee and the Kilgore College DU committee co-sponsor the event.

Richard Harrison of Kilgore is this year¿s Kilgore DU area chairman. In addition to serving as chairman for this banquet, he is state publicity chairman for Texas DU, East Texas DU district chairman and a DU state trustee/national delegate. He has chaired the Gregg DU banquet three times.

The Kilgore DU banquet will include both live and silent auctions and a tiered raffle structure.

The auctions and raffles will feature special, limited edition Ducks Unlimited merchandise, including a variety of framed, signed-and-numbered prints and the 2006-07 DU Gun-of-the-Year, a Beretta "Silver Onyx" 20 gauge over-and-under.

"The banquet merchandise package for this year is as good as any I've seen," Harrison said. "The Beretta shotgun is really nice. It's a companion to the 12-gauge Beretta that DU offered a couple of years ago. There's also a Shooting Rig Collection¿ mallard decoy, the fourth decoy in this DU series. There are several other collectible decoys and lots of DU art work."

The Kilgore DU committee will hold its next business meeting at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 24, in Room 104 of the Communications and Automotive Building at Kilgore College. All current Kilgore DU committee members and anyone interested in joining the committee are encouraged to attend the meeting.

"Our committee members really need to make this meeting," Harrison said. "It's one of our last meetings before school ends, and we've got some important decisions to make regarding this year's banquet. We really need everyone's input. We've got to look at... what we need to do this year to improve everything about the banquet."

Ducks Unlimited is the world's largest wetland conservation organization. Its mission is to conserve, restore and manage wetlands and associated habitats for North America's waterfowl

Since its founding in 1937, DU has raised more than $2 billion, which has contributed to the conservation of more than 12 million acres of wetland habitat throughout the North American continent. These areas provide habitat for ducks, geese, deer, elk, moose, bear and more than 900 other documented wildlife species.

For more information about Ducks Unlimited, visit the organization's web site at ducks.org. For information about DU activities in Texas, visit tx.ducks.org. For local information about DU, contact Harrison at (903) 984-6507 or e-mail greggducks at hotmail.com.