UNITY — The Unity Wildlife Federation were thrilled to host their re-scheduled dinner and awards night n April 23 in Unity, postponed from the initial February 2022 date.
Vice-president Kurt Elder says the number of volunteer hours going into planning, preparing and cooking for their annual event is immeasurable. He says the volunteer team puts in prep work before the actual event however the weekend of the dinner itself, the volunteers start working on Thursday for the Saturday night supper. Their work continues right into Sunday cleanup activity.
Cooks prepare a variety of dishes that include buffalo burgers, ginger deer, elk sausage, fresh fish and much more. The meal is one of the reasons the event is a sellout each year. Following the meal, awards are handed out, determined from an earlier scoring night event.
This event is the UWF's biggest fundraiser and it helps the organization fund the Unity Composite High School archery program, as well as the firearm safety program. They also plan to install a new aeration system at the Scott dam this summer, if all goes well. UWF also provides a scholarship for a graduate each year.
The organization has 12 directors but Elder said they could use four more as they would like to have 16 to run at maximum efficiency.
The UWF is thankful for a number of community sponsors, prize donors and trophy sponsors and donors that help to make their evening a success
Winners for the 2022 awards were:
- Largest Typical Whitetail, Brent Heitt, score 181 5/8
- Largest Non-Typical Whitetail, Mike Volk, score 155 7/8
- Largest Ladies Whitetail, Tania Heck, score 109 7/8
- Largest Senior Whitetail, Ken Riess, score 141 7/8
- Largest Junior Whitetail, Erika Bretzer, score 151 6/8 NT
- Largest Typical Mule Deer, Francis Zunti, score 166 2/8
- Largest Non-Typical Mule Deer, Dion Fowler, score 173 0/8 NT
- Largest Ladies' Mule Deer, Rheann Jackson, score 166 0/8
- Largest Junior Mule Deer, Bronson Volk, score 138 4/8
- Largest Archery Trophy, Scott Purcell (Pronghorn), score 65 3/8
- Largest Moose. Shannon Mellquist, score 139 1/8
- Largest Elk, Kurt Elder, score 164 0/8
- Largest Black Bear, Cohen Lasko, score 19 1/16
- Largest Antelope, Breanna Elder, score 63 6/8
- Largest Goose, Dylan Ganter, 12 lbs 14 oz
- Largest Junior Goose, Bronson Volk, 12 lbs 0 oz
- Largest Duck, Sheldon Heck, 3 lbs 4 oz
- Largest Rainbow Trout, Leroy Adams, 5 lbs 6 oz
- Largest Lake Trout, Brent Heitt, 8lbs 0 oz
- Largest Jackfish, Jeff Krupka, 25 lbs 5 oz
- Largest Walleye, Sheldon Heck, 7 lbs 0 oz
- Largest Perch, Mik Carey, 1 lb 8 oz
- Largest Junior Fish, Seb Lauinger, 17 lbs 3 oz
