Anchorage Hillside Rotary Club

Moose Marble Madness

Started in 1989, this raffle has annually provided $13,500.00 in donations to the American Diabetes Association ($6,500.00 annually) and other local charities.  Two thousand moose nuggets are each assigned a number and the numbers are sold.  The nuggets are then dropped from a helicopter onto a target on the fateful day.  Depending on the winds and the prop wash, the nuggets fall wide and near.

Bob Weel, Dr Bob Sharpe, and Dr. Jerry Danielson were mulling over possible fund raisers for the club one night during the fall of 1988 at O'Malley's.  They were seeking something that would be uniquely Alaskan.  Bob Weel remembered someone who used to go up in a helicopter and drop $1.00 bills to the residents of Spenard when he was a child.  It was a short leap from dollar bills to moose nuggets, and the rest is history.  It helped that member Clint Johnson was a helicopter pilot. 

The primary purpose of the drop has been to assist the Anchorage Chapter of The American Diabetes Association's major fund raiser.  The donation the past two years has been used to help in covering the upfront expenses of The  Tour De Cure.  Prior to that, the donation funded the grand prize of the Diabetes Associations annual Treasure Hunt

Other organizations receiving proceeds from the drop include Habitat for Humanity, Boys and Girls Club of Anchorage, Raise a Reader, Anchorage Youth Court, Brother Francis Shelter and Mary Magdalene Home.

Following the drop, the measuring and the cleanup; a party is held to celebrate the end of this worthwhile event and the onset of spring.  The event is aptly named The Moose Marble Beach Party. 

A brief pictorial of the Moose Marble Madness drop follows.

Click to enlarge. Here she comes. Clint at the controls and Bob ready to dump and try to hit the target.	Click to enlarge. Let 'er Rip. Bob is hoping the seat belt holds as he does not want to end up on the bull's eye as he drops the nuggets.
Click to enlarge. Who WON?? Time to measure the distance from the bull's eye.	Click to enlarge. We made the year-in-review in the local newspaper.