Friends of the NRA Banquet slated for Saturday

For the 10th year, the Putnam County Friends of the NRA will hold their annual banquet this weekend.

This year's event is slated to be held March 1 at the Putnam County Fairgrounds in the York Community Building. Doors open at 5 p.m. with a live and silent auction, games, raffles, catered dinner and much more on the docket. 

"It feels good. Ten years commitment to one thing is a long time, and I am happy to say that after this year, our Putnam County chapter will have raised over $700 thousand for youth shooting sports in the state of Indiana," Clint Cooper, Chairman of the Putnam County Chapter of the Friends of the NRA, told The Putnam County Post. 

Cooper said the Putnam County Friends of the NRA is an organization that is not affiliated with the political branch of the NRA. 

"Our mission is to educate our youth and women in shooting sports and how to safely handle firearms. We are one of the only organizations that has the amount of money we raise per state stay in that state. Fifty percent of every dollar we raise stays in Indiana. There are 26 chapters and all 26 of the chairmen get together in January, go through the grant requests and we give grants out. We had 163 requests and we gave out just shy of $750 thousand. Typically, most of those go to your shooting teams, 4-H shooting sport teams and a few lady organizations we help with," said Cooper. 

Cooper said the event features something for everyone.

"It's a big night of fun. There's 350 to 400 people there, and they all have kind of the same idea and understands this is to support the kids. This is not a political event. Our 4-H kids and parents help set the event up in the morning and then come work the event that evening. We play several games. We have one game where every time we sell 50 tickets, we raffle a gun off. We will give 10 guns away on that one event. We have the second largest auction in the state, thanks to some incredible donors in our community. Our support locally is neat. We are not a big area, but we have the sixth largest banquet in the state, and last year, we had the 50th largest in the nation out of over 700 in 2024. Feels good to break that top 50 mark nationally," Cooper said.