Benefit dinners are once again alive and well in the 95361, and while word may be a bit slow at getting out, organizers are still hard at work to earn funds for their respective causes.
Oakdale Cowboy Museum board members and manager Bambi Porter are no different. On Saturday, Oct. 30 they will host the 23rd Annual Cowboy Museum Dinner and Auction, at the Gene Bianchi Community Center, Oakdale.
A VIP event will begin the night’s festivities with libations at 4 p.m., followed by the general event beginning at 5:30 p.m.
“This is so exciting. There is a VIP event that happens before the actual doors open to the public,” Porter said, sharing that during this time, VIP attendees will have access to event special guest Forrie J. Smith of the hit show Yellowstone.
“Of course there’s cocktails and delicious appetizers and all sorts of fun and frivolity,” she added of the VIP event. VIP tickets are $200 for museum members and $225 for non-members.
Tickets for both experiences are still available, and they may be purchased at the Oakdale Cowboy Museum in person, 355 E. F St., Oakdale, or by calling 209-847-7049.
General admission tickets are $125 for non-members and $100 for members. VIP tables are $1550 and General admission tables are $750 for a table that seats eight.
With the price variance between member and non-museum members, interested attendees may want to consider becoming an Oakdale Museum member.
“We have memberships that start at $25 for individuals,” Porter said, “family memberships are $50. And then we have corporate memberships, which you’d have to call and we can talk about, but these members and this dinner, are what funds the museum all year long.”
The annual dinner is one of the two main events for the organization.
“We do two fundraisers all year,” the museum manager continued. “We do Cowgirl Luncheon and then we do this museum dinner and auction. It’s so important to our community to support this event, so that we can ensure that the cowboy museum lives on.”
Porter noted that the event will host raffle items, live auction items and a variety of firearms for auction. As of press time donations were still coming in for the annual event.
The organizer also shared that it’s customary for the event to honor either a ranching family, cowboy or an individual living the Western lifestyle. Unfortunately with the COVID19 pandemic shutting so much down for so long, the board did not feel they had ample time to make a selection and honor them properly.
“This has been nuts,” Porter said of planning and executing the event just two short months following Cowgirl Luncheon. “In order to really do a great job by choosing somebody to honor in our community with COVID, we just didn’t have the time in order to do it right. We don’t have time to put together a great presentation and meet with the family to do the necessary interviews, to take photos to do all the things that would be proper to do proper honors.”
On the positive side, Smith said special guest Forrie J. Smith will not only serve as a “personality” during the VIP event, but he will also be a guest speaker during the dinner event.
“There are so many great things about Forrie,” Porter said of the guest being the right fit for the event, “but for sure, he definitely is somebody that embraces the Western heritage.”
Another special guest to the annual event will be 13-year-old guest auctioneer, Grayson Hayden-Myer.
“She is so amazing,” Porter said.
Working to keep the community’s Western heritage front and center continues to be the mission for the Oakdale Cowboy Museum.
“We try to do as much as we can financially in our community that we possibly can,” Porter concluded, “be able to be a bigger part of the community.”
