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Author Topic: Benelli M2 Shotgun Raffle!!  (Read 1865 times)

Offline Famous556

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Benelli M2 Shotgun Raffle!!
« on: September 01, 2010, 10:11:22 PM »
Hello everyone,

My name is Allen, and I am a firefighter/paramedic with the Valley Volunteer Fire/Rescue Department.  My department is hosting a raffle and benefit for one of our members, Gerald Hemphill, who was recently diagnosed with stage 3C colon cancer.  Gerald is a firefighter/paramedic and is the Rescue Chief of our department.  He is also a paid firefighter/paramedic for the Fremont Fire Department.  Since his diagnosis, he has had a large section of his large intestine removed, and is 3 weeks into an aggressive 6 month chemotherapy regimen.  Due to the nature of his illness, Gerald is unable to work for the foreseeable future.  Gerald and his wife have 4 daughters together and live in Valley, NE.  Gerald has been a very active member of our department, as well as our community as both a coach and father and much more.

To help our brother during his time of need, we will be hosting a raffle and benefit on October, 23rd, 2010.  The drawing for the raffle will be at the benefit which will be held in the Legion Hall (the old bowling alley) in Valley, NE from 4PM-Midnight.  My father and I are in charge of organizing the raffle and selling tickets.  My father is also a member of the Valley Fire Department and this site (username: greg58).  We have selected a very nice Benelli shotgun that will be the grand prize for the raffle.   

The prizes are as follows:

1st - Benelli M2 field 12ga semi-auto shotgun, 26" bbl, Max 4 camo pattern, comes with the factory 5 chokes and tool and shim kit.
Further information can be found here http://www.benelliusa.com/shotguns/benelli_m2_field.php
2nd - COBY 32" flat screen LCD TV
3rd - $100 gift certificate to Arms and Ammo Sporting Goods, Fremont, NE.

The shotgun may be viewed in person at any time before the raffle at Arms and Ammo Sporting Goods in Fremont for those of you in the area.  Just ask to see the ?Valley Fire Benelli?.

We are selling tickets for $10 each with all of the money going directly to Gerald.  We will sell a maximum of 500 tickets.  You do not need to be present to win.  Obviously, you need to be 18 years of age and be able to pass a NICS check if you are the winner of the shotgun.  The winner will either need to pick up the shotgun and fill out a 4473 in person at Arms and Ammo Sporting Goods in Fremont, NE, or arrange to have them ship the shotgun to your FFL.  I can provide contact information for Arms and Ammo, but any arrangements beyond picking up the shotgun in person will have to be made by the winner.  If you are the winner of the television, it should be picked up in person at the Valley Fire Station.  We would prefer not to ship the television due to its size and fragility.  We will mail the gift certificate via Certified Mail to the winner if he/she is unable to pick it up in person at the Valley Fire station.


If you are interested in supporting our brother and having a chance to win this awesome shotgun, you can contact me or my father (Greg) several ways.

The best way is to send an email to fightingthefireraffle @ gmail . com  (delete the spaces first)

You may also use the personal message system through this website and contact myself or greg58, but I would prefer you use the email we have set up above because it will yield a faster response for you and won't use up bandwidth of this site or get a full inbox.  If you have any questions, you may email me at the address above and I will provide additional contact information.  We will accept personal checks or money orders made out to the Valley Fire Department, and we will mail you your raffle ticket and notify you if you are the winner (assuming you are not present the night of the drawing).

Most importantly, I ask that you keep our brother Gerald and his family in your thoughts and prayers through this most difficult time and wish him a full and speedy recovery.

Thank you for your time and consideration,
Allen
Human life and limb preservation specialist

Offline Famous556

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Re: Benelli M2 Shotgun Raffle!!
« Reply #1 on: September 01, 2010, 11:17:44 PM »
Thank You to the NFOA for allowing us to post this request here, and for highlighting a link right on the top.
Gerald is also a deer hunter and has introduced his 2 oldest daughters to the deer hunting hobby, and has put them through NE. hunter safety.
If anyone is interested in mailing a request for a raffle ticket, please send $10 per ticket along with your return address to:
Valley Fire Dept.
210 West Church St.
P.O. box 554
Valley Ne. 68064
Attn: Greg Sunde

I will mail your ticket stub to you, after filling out your name and info and dropping it in the box.
If you live in the eastern NE area tickets will be sold by Valley, Fremont, and Waterloo firefighters, and also will be available at Arms & Ammo in Fremont NE.
Allen and I will update this thread as things get rolling.

Thanks again, Greg58
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Offline greg58

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Re: Benelli M2 Shotgun Raffle!!
« Reply #2 on: September 01, 2010, 11:25:38 PM »
Thank You to the NFOA for allowing us to post this request here, and for highlighting a link right on the top.
Gerald is also a deer hunter and has introduced his 2 oldest daughters to the deer hunting hobby, and has put them through NE. hunter safety.
If anyone is interested in mailing a request for a raffle ticket, please send $10 per ticket along with your return address to:
Valley Fire Dept.
210 West Church St.
P.O. box 554
Valley Ne. 68064
Attn: Greg Sunde

I will mail your ticket stub to you, after filling out your name and info and dropping it in the box.
If you live in the eastern NE area tickets will be sold by Valley, Fremont, and Waterloo firefighters, and also will be available at Arms & Ammo in Fremont NE.
Allen and I will update this thread as things get rolling.




That was me talking, I didn't know I was logged on my son's account. Greg58
« Last Edit: September 01, 2010, 11:28:12 PM by greg58 »
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Offline Dan W

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Re: Benelli M2 Shotgun Raffle!!
« Reply #3 on: September 03, 2010, 06:46:01 PM »
Gerald, I hope and pray that you recover fully and spend a long long time with those 4 little girls.

...from a man that also has 4 daughters.

My small way of helping is on the way.

Dan W    NFOA Co Founder
Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom.   J. F. K.

Offline RWNJ

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Re: Benelli M2 Shotgun Raffle!!
« Reply #4 on: September 03, 2010, 07:47:03 PM »
I mailed a request in this morning.  Might I suggest that you include a self-addressed stamped envelope.  Make it a bit easier on Greg.
Cynical, opinionated, and far to the right of conservative.

Offline Famous556

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Re: Benelli M2 Shotgun Raffle!!
« Reply #5 on: September 03, 2010, 07:47:20 PM »
Several of you have already contacted me about buying tickets.  I appreciate all of the interest in our raffle!  I'll send out tickets as soon as we get your checks and info.  

Also I'd like to say thank you again to the NFOA for allowing us to solicit our raffle here and for making a link directly to this post.  Your help is very much appreciated my friends. 8)

Allen
« Last Edit: September 05, 2010, 10:32:05 PM by Famous556 »
Human life and limb preservation specialist

Offline Famous556

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Re: Benelli M2 Shotgun Raffle!!
« Reply #6 on: September 08, 2010, 05:36:51 PM »
Ok folks,  I have an update. 

Any of you who we have already recieved checks from your tickets have been sent.  I know there is at least one person who has contacted me that we have not recieved your check yet, and I will let you know when we recieve your check and info and send your ticket(s).  I would like to sincerely thank all of you who have been so generous this far and wish all of you good luck on the drawing!  You are all more than welcome to attend the benefit if you wish, although I know it's not practical for a lot of you.

Also I would like to say that although we have had a great response from this site, there are still plenty of tickets available.  If you have thought about purchasing a ticket and havent yet, go ahead and send us a request!

Thanks for all of your help this far folks,
Allen
Human life and limb preservation specialist

Offline Famous556

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Re: Benelli M2 Shotgun Raffle!!
« Reply #7 on: October 07, 2010, 01:22:03 AM »
UPDATE!

Hi everyone, we have been doing pretty well on ticket sales.  Thanks to a lot of you, I can say that we have raised about $3000 so far for Gerald and his family!!!  Thank you to all of you who have purchased tickets thus far, it's great to have such a good group of folks here who are so willing to help a complete stranger in need.

We are still selling tickets, so if you would like to purchase tickets to have a chance to win this shotgun, don't hold out!  The tickets are flying right now.  Remember that the drawing is October, 23rd and will take place in Valley at the Leigon Hall the night of Gerald's benefit.  If you have been thinking of buying tickets and have held out, act soon because the drawing is coming up very quickly.

Allen
Human life and limb preservation specialist

Offline Famous556

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Re: Benelli M2 Shotgun Raffle!!
« Reply #8 on: October 21, 2010, 12:08:00 AM »
Hello all,

I am proud to report that due to some hard work by our firefighters, and some good exposure from our friends here at NFOA, we have sold all but 35 raffle tickets.  I intend to sell these remaining tickets at the benefit where we will have the shotgun on display, and don't think we will have any trouble selling the remaining tickets. 

Any of you are welcome to attend the benefit, it is a good chance to help a family in need as well as get the chance to win some awesome auction prizes and eat great smoked pork and drink some beer.  The benefit is this Saturday, the 23rd at the Legion Hall in Valley, it will go from 4:30 to midnight.  If any of you in the area want to purchase raffle tickets this is your final chance to do so.

I would like to sincerely thank all of you who helped us along with this raffle, from the NFOA administrators for helping me publicize the raffle, to those of you who purchased tickets.  I very much appreciate all of the help I've received from all of you.

Thank you!

Allen
Human life and limb preservation specialist

Offline Dan W

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Re: Benelli M2 Shotgun Raffle!!
« Reply #9 on: October 21, 2010, 07:33:22 PM »
Please tell Gerald we are all pulling for him!
Dan W    NFOA Co Founder
Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom.   J. F. K.

Offline Famous556

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Re: Benelli M2 Shotgun Raffle!!
« Reply #10 on: October 22, 2010, 04:04:13 PM »
Please tell Gerald we are all pulling for him!

Will do, thanks so much for all of your help!

Allen
Human life and limb preservation specialist

Offline Famous556

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Re: Benelli M2 Shotgun Raffle!!
« Reply #11 on: October 24, 2010, 04:32:25 PM »
Hello Everyone!


Wow what a night, last night was a great event and the raffle drew a lot of attention.  I ended up having 38 tickets to sell last night and sold them all in short order.  Everyone had a great time.  All of the Hemphills were there and Gerald was very happy to see everyone and had a great time.  Many (EMT's/Firefighters) people that we usually only get to see once a year at conferences made it out and it was nice to see everyone coming out to support this family.  I was also pleased to see a good number of people from the ER in Fremont come out who only knew Gerald through work.  I have not heard of a total head count, but would estimate 4-500 people made it through last night.  The live and silent auction went well and thanks to our donors, we had a lot of items to keep everyone busy!  Between the raffle and the benefit, we were able to raise a very substantial amount of money that should be enough to help this family through their time of need. 

I'm also happy to report that Gerald seems to be doing well with his chemotherapy.  Of course it is not without it's side effects, but thats the nature of the beast.  Everyone in our community has been coming out in droves to help this family which is so great. 

Now for the results :)

The 1st prize Benelli was won by Sandra Roemer

2nd prize TV was won by Karla Backhuus

3rd prize gift certificate was won by one of our Valley firefighters Jake Lewis.

We also drew for some other prizes after the main three were drawn.  The Valley Chief of Police won some free pizzas from Casey's (that will come in handy!)

I would like to thank all of you who purchased tickets and the Administrators for allowing us to solicit our raffle here.  All of your help is greatly appreciated.
Human life and limb preservation specialist