ANSELMO – Anselmo’s “4/13 Appreciation Event,” by all measures, was a tremendous success.
Event organizer Dave Lamb summed up the night in a single word: “Phenomenal.”
“It was a phenomenal day, with a phenomenal crowd. We struggled to come up with things that we could’ve done differently.”
The word may, in fact, be an understatement; Lamb and his event served a prime rib meal to over 700 people. More impressive, says Lamb, is the amount of money raised by the 700-plus for the cause.
“For our whole event, with all the cash donations and auction items and raffle tickets, we think we’re going to have, give or take, $115,000 to distribute between the fire departments.”
Those departments are spread statewide; Lamb and his team will be dividing those dollars 64 ways, teaming up with the Custer County Foundation to parse out how best to move the money where it needs to go.
Lamb says the work involves concocting a formula based on distance traveled, man hours, and vehicles lent to the April fight. The task is tall, and made a little more complicated, Lamb says, by some unusual generosity.
“We’ve had several fire departments call us and say, ‘We don’t want anything, give it to your local departments.’ So it’ll take a bit to sort through that and make sure everybody’s square.”
Lamb says that in addition to local participating departments, around 6 from the Cooksley Complex Fire coalition were represented.
George Cooksley delivered a speech to the crowd, thanking them for their ongoing support before, during, and after the fire; Lamb says that Cooksley recognized that in some way, every one of the 700 in attendance played a part in the fire’s containment.
“There were a lot of other people besides the fire departments who helped out at the fire, ranchers, for example, with their equipment. George took the time to thank them. There’s a whole world out there that we hadn’t touched on.”
The auction was an astounding success; one of the higher-valued items, the Henry rifle, brought in about $2500 for the relief effort.
Lamb says that he and his event team are eternally grateful for a community that continues to support each other in times of hardship.
“We’re very thankful that the community and everybody participated as they did.”
The money for the 4/13 Event, Lamb says, is still being tallied as donations continue to pour in, though distribution is expected to begin within a month.
