Wildlife Unlimited banquet fills Watersmeet casino with games, youth prizes

Wildlife Unlimited of Iron County turned the Northern Waters Casino & Resort in Watersmeet into a long night of raffles, games and prizes on April 18, but the real payoff was aimed far beyond the banquet hall. The group used its 36th annual membership dinner to raise money for wildlife habitat work in Iron County, while making sure every youth attendee left with either a BB gun or a fishing pole and tackle box.

The event filled the casino’s banquet space with silent auction tables, general raffle entries, Plinko, 50/50 drawings, gun boards and specialty games including shotshell and dice raffles. More than 70 door and raffle prizes were planned, and the crowd kept moving between games as the evening unfolded around the organization’s bigger mission: funding projects that support wildlife and fish indigenous to the Upper Peninsula in Iron County.

Wildlife Unlimited says all of its programs depend on local funding, and that fundraising proceeds are applied directly to habitat management in the county. Its purpose statement also says the group works to encourage conservation, restoration, scientific research, education and training related to wildlife management. The organization’s technical advisory committee includes Michigan Department of Natural Resources wildlife and fisheries biologists, U.S. Forest Service representatives, Iron County Board of Commissioners members and local businesspeople.

The setting itself fit that mission. Northern Waters Casino Resort is owned and operated by the Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians. The property opened in 1996 as Lac Vieux Desert Resort Casino, was rebranded in 2017 and includes banquet and meeting facilities along with a 132-room hotel.

The banquet also leaned heavily on local volunteers. The photo package named John Carlson, Ryker Gill, Bob Gallop, Nicole Lenhart, Dave Callovi, Brandon Maki, Sandy Jastrzemski, Larry Pifke, Kristie Olson, Fawn Papatriantafyllo, Tony Tomasoski, Ben Gendron, Nathan Holm, Scott Turner, Lisa Pifke, Josh Polich, Steve Lenhart, Lacey Enders, Dave Grondin, Georgi Tomasoski, Donna Camps, Diane Grondin, Autumn Gendron and Jacob Tomasoski, showing how wide the support base runs for the nonprofit’s work.

The youth focus was especially clear. Wildlife Unlimited has a long record of running youth hunts, youth fishing contests, youth trap programs and 4H air rifle teams, and longtime organizers Larry Pifke and Scott Westphal have worked together on the youth program for more than two decades. At the banquet, Ben Gendron won a Browning over-under shotgun, and Leonardo Fabbri won a Henry .22 and a Mossberg 12-gauge, underscoring how strongly the event still draws local interest around hunting, fishing and the outdoor economy that so many Iron County families rely on.