On March 30th, we had our Gala event of the year – our FATC Charity dinner at Andre’s West in Fenton, Missouri. It was a special night in many respects as our founder and longtime chairman of the board, Kenny Klimes, gave up the reigns of the organization to Jim Craig, our new chairman. We also broke our old record of attendees as 154 people signed up to attend the charity dinner (60 ladies). The best news is that our record attendance this year set a new high for funds raised. Between dinner, raffle, and donations we netted $30,178 that we will be donating to our four charities – Altar Fly Fishing, The Mayfly Project, Casting for Recovery and Project Healing Waters.
The dinner started at 6pm and most didn’t leave until almost 10pm. The guests were greeted at the door and sent to the welcome table where they picked up their name tags, one free raffle ticket and a rose for each lady attending. Then they were directed to the back of the banquet room to purchase their raffle tickets. All the while videos of each of our charities we sponsor were playing on the big screen. Yes, BIG screen as Tom Petrie and Pete Drochelman had set up a “HUGE” screen to show all the videos this year. I bet it was three times the size of the old screen we used last year – plus the sound was great too. From 6pm – 6:45pm the raffle tickets were sold, and the attendees were selecting what they wanted to win.
At 6:45pm we all sat down for a few announcements, grace was said by John Muckerman, and we all had a wonderful meal put on by Andre’s West. As always, the air was filled with awesome conversations of new friendships being made and old ones rekindled. Once the Board of Director’s table was finished eating the festivities began. The new Board of Directors, along with the FATC leads, were introduced along with our corporate sponsors. The first forty raffle was announced – the first forty raffle is where the first forty guys that sign up for the dinner get put into a special raffle to win some prizes. This year twelve of the first forty won a Project Healing Waters cap (that is one of the charities we sponsor that work with injured veterans and active-duty military). Wear the caps proudly! We also honored Don Varner who brought in well over $2500 worth of donations for our raffle with a $100 gift certificate to Feather Craft Fly Shop – GREAT JOB, Don!!
We decided for forego games this year because of time constraints, but we did have a special surprise for all. We tried a Willy Wonka surprise! As in the movie Willy Wonka, we had five Golden Tickets taped randomly under five different chairs. Those that sat in those chairs discovered that they had won some very special dinner coupons for restaurants throughout the St Louis region. Of course, Golden Ticket number one took home a little bit bigger prize.
After a short break to buy more raffle tickets and put them in the appropriate bags to win prizes, Jim Craig took over the master of ceremonies for the evening to announce our FATC awards. The Miles Meyer Tournament plaque was awarded to this year’s winner, Christopher Beahm. Christopher blew the competition away with 19 trout caught in the 3-hour period of the tournament. Our FATC awards for 2025 went to two deserving individuals. The Bob Chott ‘Servant’s Heart’ award went to Ken Welter for his work with the Ronald McDonald House and as Jim explained, his ability to attend almost all the graduation trips to “cheer” the new guys on during their graduation. Well-deserved Ken!! Our second award, the Lew Smith ‘Spirit of Fly Fishing’, went to Matt McClure. This was the second time in our FATC history that Matt won this award. He won the very first Lew Smith ‘Spirit of Fly Fishing’ award back in 2015. Matt was responsible for setting up on his own, several trips out of state to include float trips and the like. Congratulations to Ken and Matt for a job well done.
Then there was a surprise thrown into the mix as the FATC celebrated the work and dedication over the past 18 years of Kenny Klimes, the founder and previous Chairman of the Board. Jim Craig and the rest honored Kenny with not one but two congratulatory cakes, a beautiful plaque for his service and an awesome picture of a Brown Trout – one of his favorite fish to catch. Kenny was truly humbled by the honor as he affected so many lives through the FATC organization. Jim gave Kenny a chance to speak (which as you know was a dangerous move) but he didn’t take “too long”. He explained one last time how the FATC was started and stated how proud he was, with God’s help, it has grown from seven men to over 240 men today.
Once Kenny was done talking, we showed the 2025 Year in Review video which is always the highlight of the evening. Produced by Pete Drochelman, the video shows all the many things that we as an organization did last year. From charity work, events and trips, in country and out of country, we were very busy as a group last year and guess what? 2026 will be busier! So do not sit on the sidelines and wish you were in the game – jump in!!
The evening closed with our big raffle. This year we had a variety of raffle gifts to win for both the ladies and the gents. This year we saw the highest dollar amount of raffle gifts ever and it showed – the more tickets you purchased the better chance you had to win and win big!
I would be remiss if I didn’t thank our corporate sponsors, especially Feather Craft Fly Shop, who donated monies for our wonderful charities. A big thank you to the FATC Board of Directors who worked for several months to get ready for this main event. And to Andre’s West who, every year, put on a fantastic event for us. Now let’s make this coming year 2026 the best year for our organization. How do you do that? Get involved in all we do. The more you are involved, the more you will get to enjoy this fabulous fellowship known as the Flyfishers at the Crossing!
