We're going to wrap up our highlights of the 2011 Friends of NRA Region Volunteers of the Year with the Western Region's Scott Hamann.

The six region's volunteers are selected by committee of senior NRA staff from the pool of Field Rep-selected Area volunteers. These individuals, invaluable to the NRA, were invited to this year's National NRA Foundation Banquet at Annual Meeting as honorable guests and to receive their awards. Everyone was able to make it except Scott, who was in Hawaii with his wife celebrating their anniversary -- poor Scott.

Far from Hawaii, Scott can normally be found in Kenai, Alaska, where he is the current chairman of the Kenai/Soldotna Friends of NRA committee. The committee is relatively new, starting in 2003, and drew a cool 137 attendees to its first banquet and raised over $11,000.

Growing steadily, the committee featured 150 guests this past year and gathered an impressive $70,000 for the NRA Foundation. Scott himself raised over $98,000 during the 2011 banquet season from a combination of banquet tickets sold, sponsorships, underwriting, and donations. The Kenai/Soldotna committee has done pretty well for itself, seeing a total of 1,280 attendees raising $348,844 in just nine short years.

When Scott’s event sold out at 150 seats and, being held at the city's largest event center, couldn't possibly accommodate anyone else, Scott simply said “Let’s do two nights.” The second night sold extremely well and when was all was said and done the committee generated over $100,000. He is also chair of his State Fund Committee and attends and helps out at no less than four other Friends of NRA events around the state.

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After pouring through hundreds of applications and a couple scheduling hiccups, 45 students have been selected to attend the 2012 Youth Education Summit.

The week-long educational experience in Washington, DC will have students tour most of the memorials and monuments surrounding the nation’s capital as they learn the significance of the American Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the importance of being an active citizen. These kids can expect to find themselves touring the Capitol Building, experiencing boot camp with Marines at Quantico, getting some target practice at the NRA Range and much more.

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The NRA Foundation, through funds raised by Friends of NRA, has funded over 18,000 grants throughout the country. It has become America's leading charitable organization in the support of shooting sports and its grants total over $180 million.

Grants provide critical funding to firearm programs on the local, state, and national levels to ranges, shooting clubs and programs like the Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program.

The Coon Valley Conservation Club in Westby, Wisconsin recently received a NRA Foundation grant to make improvements to their grounds and the Westby Times has a great story about it.

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St. Louis, Missouri - The National NRA Foundation Banquet & Auction, sponsored by Cabela's and Leupold, was the last event held Thursday before the 141st NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits officially begin this morning.

Raffle, dinner, speakers, auction, last night had all the aspects of a Friends of NRA banquet, except this one was much larger. More than 1,500 attendees were seated in the Edward Jones Dome, home of the St. Louis Rams, to celebrate the all the great things NRA has done, and hopes to continue doing, for the Second Amendment.

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Fairfax, Virginia - The Cartridge Comparison Guide, the ultimate hunting and ballistics manual, will now donate a portion of the proceeds of the sales to the NRA Foundation's Firearms and Markmanship Training Endowment.

Known to be the most informative and comprehensive book written on cartridge comparison, the Guide is recommended to everyone in the shooting industry by the NRA Training Department. Here's a portion of the guide's description from the Cartridge Comparison website:

The Guide compares every factory available cartridge from the 17 calibers up to the 50 caliber cartridges. It compiles cartridge data from all major ammunition manufacturers such as Hornady, Nosler, Barnes, Swift, Norma, Sierra, Weatherby, Winchester, Remington, and Federal.

It shows the optimal velocity achieved for each bullet weight and calculates bullet energy, recoil, and powder efficiency.

By using the data, discussions, and graphics presented in this manual, every reader can compare any cartridge against any other based on caliber, bullet weight, velocity, energy, recoil, or an other comparative factor.

Also available for an NRA Training discount is the American Standard Bullet Poster. Featuring actual size images of over 200 Rifle, Handgun, and Shotgun loads. This guide and poster are both great training tools that NRA Certified Instructors can utilize as part of their lesson.

To take advantage of this discount, please go to nra.cartridgecomparisonguide.com/store/

If you're going to this year's NRA Annual Meetings in St. Louis, the NRA Foundation has two great events going on that you should check out.

Both events are brought to you by Cabela's and Leupold and feature a ton of firearms, merchandise, and more.

First up is the National NRA Foundation Banquet. Last year, this event sold out two weeks in advance and the 1,300 attendees all had a great time. The banquet netted over $200,000 for The NRA Foundation, money that went on to support over 180 NRA programs including education and training, shooting competitions and range conservation.

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John Bailey, NRA's Manager of Shows and Events, thought the following excerpt from American Hunter magazine would be a welcome addition to the blog:

NRA members across the country are working diligently to help build a stronger NRA by promoting and selling NRA memberships through a special program developed by the NRA Membership division. The NRA Recruiter Program provides eligible NRA members with the tools necessary to recruit new NRA members right on the spot. Participation in the program is free and open to NRA Instructors, affiliated clubs and ranges, retail stores and any NRA member with the drive and determination to sell NRA memberships at gun shows and special events across the country.

Those accepted into the program will become an official NRA Recruiter and will operate as an independent contractor authorized to sell memberships on NRA’s behalf. They will receive a commission for each membership sold and, as mentioned, will be provided with all the necessary tools and materials needed to be successful.

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Friends of NRA is now on Causes to raise money for The NRA Foundation!  There are many causes supporting The NRA Foundation on this application, but there’s only one Friends of NRA and we are certain that we can raise more money than all the other causes combined. 

Causes utilizes the Facebook platform and allows you to join the cause, tell your friends, give money or give a minute to advertisers.  When you join the cause you are able to participate in all these activities. 

The Causes application is managed by Network for Good which sends the funds to The NRA Foundation.  Help us utilize this application to support Friends of NRA and The NRA Foundation!  This is perfect for people who say they don’t have the time or money to come to Friends of NRA banquets.  Now they can support us through Causes.  The minimum donation you can give is $10, but people can “Give a Minute” to participate in an ad and $0.10, $0.20, or $0.30 is donated to The NRA Foundation.

Help us spread the word about this app.  Join at http://www.causes.com/causes/634803-support-friends-of-nra and start inviting your Friends of NRA volunteers and attendees to Causes!

Tomorrow is the 10th Anniversary of 9/11. We here at the NRA would like to salute all who risked their lives that day in an effort to save or protect others ... including New York police officer Walter Weaver. Please take a moment to watch this video and learn more about one of New York's and America’s finest.