When: Friday August 30th 4PM till someday Saturday AM!
Where: NYSTA (Herkimer County Fairgrounds/Frankfort, NY)
Well, I’ve been waiting for a greenlight to make this post……and I now have it.
The Flat Iron is a GO!
Our goal is to make it the biggest and best AND most successful fundraising event to date, and with everyone’s support, I know we can do it!
As everyone knows, our dear friend and family member Von Strahan has been fighting some health issues…….and that is putting it mildly. I won’t sugar-coat this: his situation, while improving, was very much indeed CRITICAL and he ain’t out of the woods yet! We all know he’s a tough (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman), and he’s fought through some of the toughest parts of his recovery. Von’s strength and mettle is getting him through, along with a wonderful family support system AND prayers and thoughts from all of you here and around the country.
I told his family that I was at the Little Valley show early on Friday and half the people I saw there asked about our friend Von. His colorful personality and laid-back/fun-loving/ball-busting disposition has transcended the NYSTA and the Flat Iron Camp!
If you do NOT know the background on the Flat Iron, it sprung from a typical situation of friends camping together at a convention and cooking and drinking and making digs at each other! 😊
One year, Von asked me to walk around with a bucket to help pay for the food. It was a small group and I probably raised $300-$400 bucks to reimburse Von and others for the volumes of food they brought. Von said: Let’s donate it to the kid’s camp (Pat Arnold Youth Trappers Camp).
That selfless act was the catalyst to start an annual auction/feed/fundraiser that has 100% of the proceeds going to the NYSTA. I am proud to say, with everyone’s help, we’ve walked $2000-$3000-$4000 of cash in the bucket down to the NYSTA crew each year, and they are happy to interrupt their OWN auction to see what we’ve done!
There was a time when our auction was NOT popular with the NYSTA due to competing auctions at the same time……but then, someone there had an epiphany and knew they needed to embrace it rather than fight it…….and it’s been universally accepted now by that organization.
Von has been fighting his health issues for a while, bobbing and weaving and fighting the up’s and down’s and mostly winning the battle. In early 2023, he came to me again with the idea of writing a Flat Iron book and getting it published and having 100% of the proceeds go to the NYSTA. He was asking me to spearhead it and I basically told him: “I don’t have the time”…….
Well, he looked at me and said: “Me neither, but I want to do this by this year’s NYSTA”
His response could be interpreted in a couple of different ways, but right there and then, we agreed to do it.
But, then and there, if completing the book was the alphabet, we were NOT even yet at letter A……………..
The book is FAR from perfect, but it’s ours. While out names and DNA are all over it, it simply could NOT have been done without the help from several others, including the chapter authors.
Again, the Flat Iron funded the publishing of the Flat Iron book with ZERO cost to the NYSTA………I don’t know the exact numbers, but I believe everyone is happy with the outcome AND cost-free income………..I just ordered 100 more books to hand to the NYSTA guys at the booth and hope they sell them all at the show.
SO……….with THAT backdrop, we are seeking help with our annual feed/auction/fundraiser…………
Donations: the reason we generate so much money with a MUCH smaller inventory is because of this: We auction off NICE STUFF!!! While we are open to any and all donations, we tend to be different from most trapping convention auctions by NOT have piles of old greasy wire coon stretchers or unusable rusty #1’s tied together with baling wire! The year my Dad died, we auctioned off the last jar of hot peppers he made and, if I recall, that jar broke $200 bucks.
Bring something YOU’D love to own or have in your house or fur shed or anywhere………..we’ve had hand-carved decoys, maple syrup, canoes, custom bows, signed original prints, high-end traps, famous traps with famous tags on them, etc.
I have some LOW NUMBER Flat Iron books that I will be bringing. Donations are piling in and I am getting some GREAT stuff!
The list goes on and on…..but hopefully, you get my drift. If you do NOT have something that you think would fit in our auction, cash donations are ALWAYS welcomed! 😊
(Much of this items below are taken care of but if you have anything special you want to bring/donate/etc. just let me know)
FOOD: I am going to find someone to help head this up but I know we will have the ability to cook just about anything……..BUT just like when you have an event at your house, always easier if people bring a dish to pass that’s already completed!
GRILLS/TABLES/TENTS: more to come on this but I think we can always use more of these…….waiting to hear if our normal tent guy has one available………if not, everyone has one of those blue 10 X10 canopies and we can lag a bunch together in rows to keep the food tables dry……..
AUCTIONEER: as I am typing this, I am realizing how much stuff Von does! He’s been doing it the last several years…………anyone have those chops? I could do it, but it will be clunky at best!
CHAIRS: like most trapping camps, bring a folding chair if you’d like……
COOLERS/ICE/FIREWOOD: We never have enough of these items……….bring with confidence!
PAPER PLATES/CUPS/UTENSILS/ETC: We won't fight you if you want to bring some!
I will keep updating the masses and will be reaching out to some of the people that help-out annually to pull this together……….
Von and I have largely been the faces of this event, but like ALL successful endeavors, it’s the support group behind us that make it all possible……..
Again, we need to make this the biggest and best FLAT IRON ever and I am confident that our biggest supporter will be Von himself, whether is released from the hospital by then or not………
THE FLAT IRON CREW
Postscript Edit: if you CANNOT attend but DO want to support us, please PM me here. I won't fight you on anything you want to send us! 🙂
