The Marengo County Longbeards chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation is gearing up for its largest fundraiser of the year, an annual banquet at the Demopolis Civic Center. The dinner allows the MCL to generate enough income to support its annual events, including a handful of youth activities geared toward Jakes, the name given to aspiring young hunters.

“The ticket money of course pays for the food at the banquet, but it goes to the events that we have,” MCL chairman Brandon Smith said. “In the last three years, we’ve grown significantly in membership. We have been able to hold four Jakes events with a total of over 125 kids.”

The Marengo County Longbeards are hoping to build on the success they found with their banquet last year, an event that proved the most fruitful the chapter has seen in more than 10 years of hosting the dinners.

“Last year we 125 (people attend the banquet),” Smith said. “It was the most we’d ever had. We were able to contribute $9,000 to the super fund.”

That fund contains the monies that the National Wild Turkey Federation hands out for various grants.

“That money we put into the super fund is the money that goes to agencies to develop habitats for wild turkeys,” Smith said. “This chapter has had $10,000 given back to it to provide additional habitat for wild turkeys in the last few years.”

The cost of admission to the event will cover a steak dinner and provide attendees the opportunity to win a number of door prizes.

“There’s going to be about six door prizes that are going to be auctioned and raffled off, a lot of turkey calls, turkey prints and others,” Smith said.

Tickets are $45 for singles, $60 for couples and $275 for sponsorship. The passes are available at Willingham Sports and Capps Taxidermy or by contacting Smith at 334-289-1498. Doors the day of the event open at 6 p.m.