1960’s and 1970’s

In the first two or three years of Deaf Camp Picnics everything was done on a “shoestring” budget.  The school needed every dime it could get to
buy land and build world class facilities, or facilities of some sort to begin with.  As time went the picnic got a meager budget but relied on its volunteer army of locals to get the job done.

My mom not only recruited every friend she had, she also recruited their kids, cousins and even in-laws.  There was work to be done and any willing hand was always appreciated.  One of the annual event’s biggest attractions was the raffle.  Local businesses of all sizes were asked to
pitch in with raffle items and the list quickly grew.  Everything from skis to season passes was up for winning.  By the 3^rd year the Chevrolet Dealership in Glenwood even offered up a new Pick-up Truck (won by Francis Kalmes).  Raffle tickets went faster than we could make them, yes, make them.

My mom had a couple of rubber stamps made that were about two inches by four inches which included a description and year of the picnic.  She also purchased a couple of the stamps of the time that had adjustable dates.  Added to that she purchased a stamp that had roiling numbers that could go from zero to 9999.  With a bunch of red pieces of paper cut to the perfect size, thanks to the local office supply store we proceeded to make raffle tickets one at a time. As we ran low, we just made more with no limit to how many could be made.  Night after night we stamped, dated and numbered raffle tickets.  We could not keep them in stock thanks to the efforts of about a dozen local kids and a few adults willing to accost every person that even approached the local post office.  This was well before local home delivery had arrived in the valley.  If you got mail you had to go the local “PO” to get it.

Every evening after school the kids lined up at our house to get more tickets.  Then off to The Elk’s, The Eagles, The Pub, The “Onion” and even local restaurants the kids went, tickets in hand.  No saloon, Bar, restaurant or hotel lobby was safe from the marauding kids.  By nightfall each of us returned to my parent’s house with wads of dollar bills and stubs where whole tickets once existed.

My mother never shared with the kids how much they sold from a dollar value but it is a safe bet that it exceeded the five figure range.  We
had a blast doing it and the Deaf Camp benefited from pour efforts.  So many things happened in the valley as a result of the picnics and my mom loved the work.  For her the adventures and stories were worth the journey.