Hunter’s Night Out a Wimberley Cultural experience

It only comes once a year, and according to the big, green sign at the city limits, Wimberley’s population is 2626, which means half the town was at St. Mary’s Knights of Columbus Council No. 9156’s Sixteenth Hunter’s Night Out or the annual gun raffle.

If you ever went to one, either at the VFW Hall or now, under the tent, how would you describe it? Some people would try and fail. Others who take Hunter’s Night Out for granted and think that it happens all over Texas, at least. A big “NO,” to that. Learning a long time ago to describe it to somebody that has never attended, a simple “you must go, it’s a Wimberley cultural experience.” And then you take them along with you.

Who would you see? Old and new friends, old schoolmates and teachers and people you haven’t seen in a long time. There’s lots of hugs everywhere. When it comes to shaking hands there’s law enforcement and politicians of all sorts attending in everyday clothes, letting you know that they are like you, just regular folk, but hoping to pick up a vote or two along the way.

Included in the price to get in is the excellent barbeque beef brisket and chicken with all the fixin’s, dessert was also included, and adult beverages of all sorts.

But, the most thrilling part is to see if you won a gun, checking each ticket to see if you are a winner. They raffle off 30 of them.

You can’t pick it up that night. But if you are a winner you’ll take home a Cabela’s gift card in the amount of the gun you won. Then you are able to purchase that particular gun or anything that’s its retail equivalent value.

There’s also bucket raffles of all sorts, from a wheel barrel full of wine, to all types of guns, hunting trips, a crossbow with site, and weekend hunting and sports packages.

But the best part of the night is that local charities benefit from the donations of the Knights of Columbus.

“Our 16th annual HNO was a huge success. Our community continues to be a huge supporter of our cause to help people in our community. We had 1100 plus attend our event this year. We gave out, the night of the event, $12,000 to 12 local charities in our community and we have provided over 50 scholarships to kids in our community from our start 16 years ago, many more to come,” Knights of Columbus HNO emcee Joe Oldham said.

The recipient organizations included local non-profits Wimberley EMS, Crisis Bread Basket, St. Vincent de Paul, Meals on Wheels, Wimberley Valley Habitat for Humanity, EmilyAnn Theatre and Gardens, and other Central Texas organizations.

For more information on St. Mary’s Knights of Columbus Bishop Louis J. Reicher Council number 9151, see their website at wimberleyknights.org