In 2006, a group of fishing teams decided to establish an event to raise money for the St Jude / Dick Hiley Memorial Bass Classic.  The thought was that collectively we could bring in considerably more money than if we each did our own fundraising.

The first event was held in Wabasha , MN at Slipperys restaurant and was only semi-successful raising around $2500 with 30 people attending. 

Building on what we learned from this first attempt, we moved the event to the Eagles Club in Rochester , MN . Some of the changes we made included  setting the event up much like a Ducks Unlimited banquet, offering a much improved buffet meal , and expanding the raffles to include hunting and fishing items with a home and garden component for the ladies. We also added a live auction. The 2007 event surpassed all of our expectations with 300 in attendance and raising around $17000.  The success of this event required us to move the 2008 event to a larger facility.

For the 2008 & 2009 event, we moved to the Rochester Event Center and added a two entree sit-down meal.  We expanded the number of prizes and added golf packages to the three premier courses in the area as well as to several public courses.  We had airline tickets, a Wii system, and a mini-motorcycle just to name a few of the new additions to our raffles and auctions. The events were attended by 400 people each year and netted around $60,000 total.  This model seems to work the way we all want it to and should require only minor adjustments.

The 2010 event will be much like last years, same venue, same menu, with hopefully a few more prizes.  This year’s goal is to sell all 500 tickets which is the capacity of the Event Center .