In Pictures: the 2012 Revelstoke Rod & Gun Club Annual Banquet and Fundraiser

By David F. Rooney

This year’s Rod & Gun Club Banquet was a good party but this year’s event was especially poignant as the club thanked Vera Aura for her years of dedication to local sportsmen and, naturally, their kids, too.

Gail Ferguson gave a moving and eloquent speech on behalf of the club:

“Good evening everyone,

“It is my honor tonight to be able to pay tribute to someone who has given so much to our club.

“In 1964 Johnnie and Vera Aura opened their business here in Revelstoke. Of those 48 years since first opening, they together, and then Vera after Johnnie passed, have worked silently for our club for at least 30 years.

“Johnnie’s is where when we were younger we took our fish to be weighed, then we took our children with their fish to have Vera weigh them, and I for one hope that Vera is still at Johnnie’s when my grandson catches his first fish so she can be the one to weigh it. When our junior members take a fish in, Vera always makes them feel like it is a whopper!  No fish brought into Vera’s is not a great fish!! The photos on the walls around her tell the stories of many fish over the years and I do believe that Vera can quite likely recall the story behind a majority of them.

“Vera’s is also the place where we head when we have lost our husband’s favorite fish hook and pray the whole way down Victoria Road that she has one hanging on the wall. If by chance she doesn’t, she will order one in to make sure that we can replace it. Not that this has ever happened to me personally….but I have heard that it happens to some wives…something about a tempter…and it likely being the last one on earth…but I forget the exact details…

“I have been a regular at Vera’s over the past two years to gather the memberships she sells on our behalf and at banquet time, to gather up the money from tickets that she very generously sells for us as she has for many many years.  “The collector” as she sometimes refers to me is always greeted with a smile and a recounting of the sales.

“Earlier this year, Vera shared with me that she is thinking of retiring sometime in the not too distant future and taking some well deserved time for herself. Not knowing when that might happen, we would have been negligent had we not as a club taken this opportunity to very publicly thank Vera for all the work over all the years that she has done for us.

“Vera, my master ticket seller….

“Thank you so much for being our source of fishing supplies and fishing stories. Thank you for weighing all those hundreds of fish over the years. Thank you for the thousands of memberships you have sold for us and also for the tens of thousands of banquet tickets you have sold with a “have a good time” wish. Thank you for always giving us a great deal, even when we don’t expect it, and thank you for just being the wonderful, generous person that you are.“

Scroll down to see photos from this terrific annual event: