Fall and hunters breakfasts seem to go hand in hand, and one Aroostook club is gearing up for a meal that will send kids to adventure camp.
The Presque Isle Fish and Game Club will host its annual event from 4 to 8 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 28, at the clubhouse on the Parsons Road.
It’s the longest-running hunters breakfast in Aroostook County, club members said. From a group that started nearly a century ago, the organization has grown to more than 300 members and is one of the largest fish and game groups in Maine. Proceeds from the meal will go into scholarships to send area youth to an outdoors camp.
The breakfast also upholds an important part of Maine life: enjoying the outdoors and inspiring young people to do the same, club secretary Sheila Wetherbee said.
“It’s a Maine tradition. It’s part of who we are up here,” Weatherbee said. “It’s our culture and it’s important, so we make sure it happens every year.”
Despite rising food prices, the breakfast’s benefits far outweigh price concerns, she said.
Presque Isle Fish and Game has supported youth efforts for many years but is ramping up its community outreach, she said. This year members are working with Presque Isle Middle School to find interested students for camp scholarships.
In the past they have sent young people from Presque Isle and surrounding areas to Sly Brook Adventures at Lugdon Lodge, near Eagle Lake, and the University of Maine 4-H camps at Bryant Pond and Greenland Point.
At the camps, kids can learn kayaking, canoeing, fishing, safe gun handling and almost any outdoor activity, club president Bob True said. Most are summer camps, but a winter sled dog mushing session is also offered.
The annual meal is all about keeping up with Aroostook County’s outdoor legacy, True said.
“One of the biggest things is it’s just carrying on a tradition,” he said. “It’s been going on for at least the last 60 or 70 years.”
The Aroostook Valley Fish and Game Club formed in 1926, representing most of The County, Wetherbee said. In 1947, local members formed the Presque Isle Fish and Game Club, and started the hunters breakfast soon after that.
The club has also started a sister organization, the Aroostook Sportsmen’s Association, as a nonprofit fundraising arm, she said.
The club offers the Hooked on Fishing, Not Drugs youth fishing event each spring with the Presque Isle Elks Lodge No. 1954, sponsors the Aroostook River Fun Run canoe and kayak race, holds a gun show and also hosts hunter safety courses, firearm training and weekly skeet shooting.
But its biggest event and largest fundraiser is the annual Aroostook Spring Sportsmen’s Show, which draws outdoors vendors and thousands of visitors from all over Maine.
The club also delivers a course called Women on Target, which introduces women to the safe use of firearms and some self- and home-protection considerations, True said.
All ages are welcome to the breakfast, he said. Margaret Underwood of Presque Isle will organize and cook the breakfast, as she did last year, with help from her husband, Rep. Joe Underwood.
The menu will include sausage, pancakes, eggs, home fries, beans, toast and coffee or juice. Drawings for door prizes will be held and the club will raffle off two guns they’ve been selling tickets for since last year’s breakfast.
The meal costs $6 for children under 8 and $12 for everyone over 8.
For information, email the club at info@pifg.org.
