Newark, New Jersey - The Second Annual Essex County Friends of NRA Banquet was held last night at Mayfair Farms in West Orange, New Jersey. Judging from the smiles in the crowd and the exhaustion of the staff, the event was a tremendous success. Breaking last year's attendance record of three hundred and seventy-one, local organizers estimated that this year's number broke the four hundred barrier ... but we're still waiting for final numbers. With skee ball and dart throws along with silent and live auctions, all were in high spirits and ready to peel open their wallets for the benefit of the local and national programs of the NRA.

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Newark, New Jersey - Those are some of the smiling faces I hope to see tonight at the Essex County Friends of NRA Banquet tonight. Right now I'm hitching a ride up to New Jersey with NRA Education and Training's Steve Hoback – a New Jersey native, don't you know. I'm trusting that Steve will be able to get us there in time and show me the sights of his beloved home state. And I'm also told that our old pal Anthony Colandro from Gun For Hire has something special planned upon our arrival. Colandro has something planned? Maybe we should rethink this New Jersey thing.

This will be my second Friends of NRA dinner. I know, I know; why haven't I been to more? The answer is simply that I'm usually on the road when the local events take place here in Northern Virginia, and I'm working other events when I'm on the road. So instead of telling you about the great banquets they throw right outside the nation's capital, I'll have to stick to my road stories at events like the one earlier this year in Phoenix and tonight's outing in New Jersey.

If you'd like to go to a Friends of NRA event, check out their website for details or come back here to NRAblog on Wednesday morning – that's when our own Kyle Jillson puts up the Friends Calendar for the week.

Until then, I'm off to Jersey.

Newark, New Jersey - Ranges and clubs across the United States are reaching out to their respective communities through NRA programs like the Youth Hunter Education Challenge, NRA Day, and the Winchester/NRA Marksmanship Qualification Program. One such example exist about three hours north of us at the Gun For Hire's new South Jersey location in Winslow.

"We opened two additional locations less than a year ago," explained Gun For Hire CEO Anthony Colandro. "It can be easy to lose site of the important things, like how we serve the community. That's why when one of our RSOs, ah Chuck Berwick to be specific, that's why when Chuck said he wanted to start using the NRWinchester/NRA Marksmanship Qualification Program, I told him to run with it."

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We often hear from our NRA Certified Instructors about recent courses they've held and the benefits of teaching others to shoot. One of those Instructors is NRA Training Counselor Paul B. Raynolds from New Jersey, who recently taught a course to a local Venture Crew and shared his story with us:

Madison, New Jersey - What is your favorite NRA Basic class? I know, for many NRA trainers that is the last class they did!

The reason I ask is because I just had mine - teaching a Basic Pistol course to the young men and women of Venture Crew 77 of Madison was by far the best class I’ve been associated with in a very long time.

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