(Seguin) — Buck Fever is more than just a two-day event dedicated to the great outdoors. It’s also grown into a major fundraiser that gives back thousands and thousands dollars to local youth related programs. In fact, it’s given out so much money over the years, it’s organizers say that they have now reached a major milestone.
Members of the non-profit Buck Fever Committee says they group has no given out more than $1 million to other local non-profit outdoor related programs. Buck Fever Vice-President Raul Reyes says they are thrilled to announce that they have reached this milestone.
“After 37 years of having Buck Fever, we have appropriated over one million dollars to the youth programs in Guadalupe County, that are outdoor related programs,” said Reyes.
Reyes says Buck Fever started with a handful of local outdoors men who wanted to have a small event that would allow them to come together and share stories. They’d also raise a little bit of money in the process, but that wasn’t their initial goal.
“The first event they had, they only donated or made $285. That’s it. And now we’re like, you know, usually we’ll make something like $100,000. I don’t know the exact numbers, but it’s quite a bit. It’s a lot of work for all the directors, the volunteers, and sponsors, but it’s all worth it in the end. When we see the money given out to the youth, we’re just really excited about it,” said Reyes.
Raising money may not have been their initial goal, but it didn’t take long for the event to grow into something much, much more. Reyes says Buck Fever now attracts people from all around, who want to celebrate the great outdoors. The two-day outdoor expo has turned into a family-event that tries to offer something for everyone. There’s the big horns contest, raffles, a large number of vendors booths, plus lots of activities for children.
Reyes says Buck Fever’s success has allowed the organization to provide more funding to outdoor related youth programs in Guadalupe County. He says it’s not only helping kids in Seguin and Guadalupe County, but kids from all over South-Central Texas are also realizing some of those benefits.
“I think now most directors’ mindset is – let’s raise money for the youth basically. I’ll use the Seguin Outdoor Learning Center as an example. That helps a lot of kids here in Guadalupe County, but a lot of other kids from all around the surrounding counties also use the center. They get impacted by it because they know we donate quite a bit of money to that location. A lot of kids, from like San Antonio, also take trips there. And that’s…pretty awesome,” said Reyes.
Reyes says they wanted to share the major news about them exceeding the $1 million level when it comes to supporting youth programs, but he says they also wanted to make sure they said thanks to all of the volunteers that make Buck Fever possible each fall. He says it couldn’t happen without all those people stepping up to do the work that takes place behind-the-scenes.
“We have, you know, numerous volunteers. That list is so long. The Texas Parks and Wildlife guys come and they help score deer. The Texas Aggie Moms help. Also, some of the girls from the Guadalupe County Fair — they help out — and then we have all sorts of vendors and we have our sponsors. We have just a bunch of different people that come to help out. They’ll set up and breakdown. So it’s a lot of work for a two-night event. But you know, it’s worth it. I mean, for everybody, they get really excited about hosting the event. And then like I said, the end results are just like the icing on the cake,” said Reyes.
Reyes says they are not stopping at this million dollar giving level. He says they want to continue to make Buck Fever bigger and better in the future, so that they can continue to grow their charitable efforts here in Seguin and Guadalupe County.
“That’s the goal to continue to raise money. And like I said, we do the raffle committee, and they do an excellent job as well. I don’t leave them out. They do an excellent job. They also have a supplementary event, it’s called the Casino Night, and we do that in April or May. That helps a lot. It helps basically magnify the amount of money we give out. I know they make quite a bit of money on that event. So that event in conjunction with the actual regular event in October…that’s why we would be able to get to where we’re at. And of course, those guys seek out a lot of the…gun sponsors and the auction items. They do a heck of a job getting all that stuff,” said Reyes.
Reyes says their final thank yous have to go to the community as a whole. He says people have supported Buck Fever for nearly four decades, and he’s thankful that so many people come back each and every year.
“We just want to thank everybody for supporting us throughout the years. And if y’all can continue to support us by attending the event, buying raffle tickets, the gun raffle tickets — that’s just what we ask. We’re just going to continue to try to grow and just continue to give money out and just keep on making more, and eventually down the road, maybe give away $2 million. So that’s really all I have, and we just want to thank all the community of Seguin for supporting us throughout the years,” said Reyes.
Buck Fever has already set a date for this year’s Casino Night Banquet. That even will be held starting at 5 p.m. on Saturday, April 22 at the Geronimo Community Center. Meanwhile, the 2023 Buck Fever two-day expo will be held in October of this year. You can find full details, including upcoming ticket information, at buckfever.org.
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