Gunslingers and schoolmarms

MOSES LAKE — The organizers of the Boys and Girls Club banquet organizers thanked the cowboys and dance hall girls, schoolmarms and cavalry soldiers, mountain men and gunslingers, all assembled for a good cause. The annual banquet, held Saturday night, is the club’s biggest fundraiser each year.

“We were completely sold out,” said director Kim Pope, and even had inquiries about tickets on Saturday morning.

The Boys and Girls Club banquet is always a chance to dress up, and for 2018 the ATEC Building was full of characters from the Wild West. “I want to take credit for (the theme) myself,” Pope said, but it was the work of the organizing committee.

Jason Hall went full mountain man; so did Mike Shoemaker – fringed leather coats, beards, leather pouches, the works. Shoemaker even had a raccoon cap made from a real raccoon. It was the work of his father-in-law, he said, who was an enthusiastic participant in mountain man reenactments. “This one is much friendlier,” he said.

“We’re here every year,” Shoemaker said. “It’s a good cause. That’s why we come.”

“I think that they do a good job for the community,” Hall said.

John Laughery said he’s been a “staunch supporter” of the Boys and Girls Club for 17 years, because he supports the club’s efforts for local kids. He opted for an authentic vibe, going with the vest, shirt, coat and tie that would’ve been right at home in the 1880s.

“It’s an outstanding cause,” said Rich Price, East Wenatchee.

Boys and Girls Club board member Jason McGowan said things aren’t as they were when he was a kid. Times might have changed, he said, “yet the remedies have not changed. Kids need a positive role model in their lives.” The Boys and Girls Club shows kids their community cares, he added.