Lee Sportsmen's Association To Celebrate 100th Birthday
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This weekend, the Lee Sportsmen's Association is celebrating its centennial with a massive celebration.
The club's birthday party will feature hot-air balloon rides, demonstrations, raffles, children's activities, hot rods, medieval archery, firearm demonstrations, a craft fair and plenty of food.
"It's like a big birthday party for the club," member Christopher Markham said on Tuesday. "You only turn 100 once. We're probably one of the oldest sporting clubs in Massachusetts."
The group has minutes from a meeting in 1912 when the club was small and mainly a shotgun range. Since then, the club has grown and while many other clubs have been stagnant in recent years, the Lee Sportsmen's Club has added more than 50 members in the last year to grow its membership to more than 400.
"It's grown into a large-scale club and we offer almost every discipline for outdoors," Markham said. "We've not done anything this large before."
The club puts on events throughout the year but the birthday bash is much bigger than anything they've ever done — from turkey shoots and fishing derbys for both youth and adults to Boy Scout outings to moose dinners. A 13-member subcommittee has been planning out the event since January.
The celebration is free and open to the public, though fees will be collected for the vendors, balloon rides and some of the demonstrations. It will be held at the Fairview Street clubhouse.
"Everything is pretty much fee-free," Markham said.
The party will wrap up around 5 p.m. After the main festival, the group has been selling tickets to a post-party celebration featuring a catered dinner and concert. However, that part of the celebration is "close to being sold out."
While it is certainly a cause for celebration, the association will continue fundraising efforts. The non-profit organization is support by donations and membership fees. In recent years, operational costs have been increasing but instead of hiking fees, the organization chose to reach out and recruit more members.
The group has been emphasizing "all they have to offer" with indoor and outdoor firing ranges and all they do with community organizations to help recruit. And new members have brought in new ideas and programs, Markham said, and said one couple who recently joined has connections with medieval fairs and have brought that to the celebration.
The club has members from all over Berkshire County and nearby states, Markham said.
