RRVT News
Big crowd, big donations at the banquet of the Raccoon River Valley Trail Association – they are “validation” of all the efforts to enhance the trail. And Brian Duffy tells the crowd that “it’s amazing what’s happening here.”
PANORA, Iowa, February 22, 2009 – Supporters of the Raccoon River Valley Trail donated $8,400 during auctions and raffles at the second annual RRVT Association banquet held at the Lake Panorama National Conference Center here. That was after hearing well-known cartoonist and bicyclist Brian Duffy tell them “it’s amazing what’s happening here” with enhancements along the trail.
There were 171 served at the Saturday night banquet. The number of attendees was up by 20 from a year ago, and the total money raised nearly matched last year’s total of $8,500. But last year, $3,200 of the total was for RRVT mileage signs that are now in place, and those didn’t sell this year.
The funds help the RRVT Association market and promote the trail across the Midwest and beyond. They also pay for a free trailside picnic in the summer for association members, and enhancement of the Fall Festival held on the trail in early October. The funds also provided for the redesign and overhaul of this RRVT site on the Internet.
Duffy, who was the Des Moines Register cartoonist for 25 years before being fired in a staff reduction in December, led off his speech saying, “I’m not going to talk about the recent past. I’m moving on – that’s a good thing for all of us to do in life.”
But he made it clear he is not leaving Iowa. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said. “I consider this home. My wife and I have four daughters we raised here and they’re all still living here, too.”
He delighted the crowd by sharing cartoons he did over the years on RAGBRAI – the Des Moines Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa – on which he was the official host the last 10 years. He projected those cartoons on a wall using a PowerPoint.
He closed his speech by doing a new drawing on a large sketch pad he put up on an easel in front of the crowd. While he told his final stories and then answered questions, he did a hilarious drawing of a bicyclist pedaling along with a raccoon sitting on his head!
Those attending bid generously on 61 items in a silent auction, which was conducted during the social hour, meal and Duffy’s speech.
Then auctioneer Kelly Daugherty, of Adel, turned a live auction of 18 items into laugh-out-loud entertainment while coaxing and cajoling with bidders for some valuable and unusual items.
Those included an eye-catching copper weather vane, designed and built by Brian Myers, of Dallas Center, to a size usable as a piece of yard art. Mark and Char Vukovich, of Lake Panorama and Des Moines, donated a week’s use of their condo in the Rocky Mountains at Frisco, Colorado. And Power Lift of Jefferson donated one of its heavy-duty spinning bikes used by most professional football teams and major college athletic programs.
There were overnight stays auctioned for such top B&Bs as the Butler House on Grand in Des Moines, Prairie View B&B west of Panora, the Old Lincolnway Hotel in Jefferson and The Yellow Swan B&B in Dallas Center. Mitch Hambleton, the mayor of Dallas Center, donated a home beer-brewing session that he will lead, and that proved a popular item. And in a special $5 per-chance raffle, 100 tickets were sold for a Fuji hybrid bicycle donated by Scheels sports store of West Des Moines.
Two pieces of Duffy artwork brought a total of $800. One was the funny sketch he did as he wound up his speech. The other was a beautiful pen-and-ink water color he did before the banquet, showing two bicyclists riding up the trail with a raccoon gazing at them from a tree branch, which was attractively custom-framed by the Ben Franklin store in Perry.
In a surprise as the banquet ended, the Perry Chamber of Commerce donated $1,000 to the RRVT Association from the money it made during its recent “BRR” event – that’s the “Bike Ride to Rippey” and back.
One of the funny moments during the live auction Saturday night was when auctioneer Daugherty sold a genuine 1980 RAGBRAI tank top T-shirt – its frayed and stained condition attested to its authenticity – which Bill Barks of Panora had donated. He had worn it on that RAGBRAI 29 years ago.
David Weaver, of Rippey, won a spirited bidding contest for the T-shirt, paying $60. He also bought the next item for considerably more – an overnight stay at Prairie View B&B. Was he trying to make peace with his wife Emily, sitting next to him, for having bought the T-shirt? “That’s exactly right,” David said. And Emily then bought the custom-framed Duffy drawing of the trail riders for $400.
“It was another successful night,” said RRVT Association president Carla Offenburger, of Cooper. “It validates the work of our association when so many community leaders and trail enthusiasts turn out for an event like this, all in support of the RRVT.”
