UNION SPRINGS #- For 72 years, Ducks Unlimited, which was founded in New York state, has been dedicated to the preservation of wetlands and the wildlife that inhabit these areas.

Saturday evening, those preservation efforts were enhanced by the annual Frontenac Chapter Ducks Unlimited Dinner and Auction.

Dan DeLawyer, regional director for western New York, said that dinners like these are crucial fundraisers for the cause of Ducks Unlimited.

DeLawyer explained that since its founding, Ducks Unlimited has spread to be an international effort, preserving more than 13 million acres of wetlands in the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Contributing greatly to that effort has been the Frontenac Chapter.

“The Union Springs chapter is one of the oldest,” DeLawyer said. “One of the oldest and most successful in the Finger Lakes. It has been going on for 30 years now.”

Likewise, the fundraiser and dinner has also been going on for three decades.

And year after year it has proven to be successful.

“We have a lot of supporters,” DeLawyer said. “Things are excellent this year. We are proud to say that this year's dinner is completely sold out.”

Along with being treated to a dinner, guests also had the opportunity to participate in both a silent and live auction.

Items up for grabs ranged from hunting gear to golf certificates to wildlife paintings and other works of art.

“Most of the merchandise comes from Ducks Unlimited,” DeLawyer said. “But we are also fortunate to have a great deal of support from a lot of local stores and merchants that have donated items for the auctions.”

With a sold out dinner, more than 200 guests and hundreds of items up for bids, DeLawyer estimated that the evening would raise between $20,000 and $25,000, all of which would go toward the further preservation of wetlands complexes.

Among those projects is one not too far from Union Springs.

“We have one project just down the road a little bit,” DeLawyer said. “We have been donated $1.2 million to a project in Montezuma to help save 1,100 acres of wetlands.”

These lands help preserve a unique environment and habitat for numerous species and also in some areas provide hunting grounds for sportsmen.

DeLawyer believes that it is this combination of the mission of Ducks Unlimited and the fact that it provides so much that garners so much support for events like the dinner.

Among those coming out to show their support was Gray Reid and his sons, Gray Jr., 9 and Liam, seven.

The Reid family are natives of Greene, but maintain a camp locally, which Reid said he and his sons use on a regular basis during hunting season.

Reid said that his family loves the area and that the region provides some of the finest hunting opportunities he has ever encountered, which he said has been made possible at least in part because of the efforts of Ducks Unlimited.

“We just wanted to show our support for Ducks Unlimited,” Reid said. “We've been to a lot of these before, but this is our first one here. We knew there was going to be a dinner here tonight and we just wanted to come out and give something back to the area.”