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The 32nd annual Jaffa Shrine Sports show is more children and sports-oriented than in the past.
Dick Swartz, Jaffa Shriner sports show committee member, said that by Friday, 300 more tickets to the show had been sold than last year.
By Saturday at 3 p.m., the show had sold 4,000 tickets.
“The sun is shining and people are out,” he said.
Each $20 ticket purchases a chicken dinner and a chance to win a prize from the show’s gun raffle, which featured prizes including hunting rifles and an all-terrain vehicle. The total value of the prizes was $70,000, which is $30,000 greater than last year, said Jaffa Shriner John Campbell, who distributed tickets.
Jaffa Shriners sports committee Chairman Bernie Edmunson said this year’s show features new tournaments and activities for children and adults.
The show’s first archery tournament sold out in two weeks of its advertisement, he said.
Children had an opportunity to participate in a free BB gun competition or sink a line into an indoor trout pond.
In addition, a coyote hunting contest, open from Friday to today, culminated with a weigh-in of the heftiest prize.
Overall, Edmunson said the show is less “flea-market” and more sports-oriented this year.
At the Jaffa Shrine facility on Broad Avenue, about 135 vendors were set up to either educate people about hunting or fishing, or to entertain them or entice them with hunting and fishing products or services.
The Jaffa Shriners in Altoona assist the 22 Shriners hospitals for children nationwide, which provide medical treatment and rehabilitation at no cost to families.
Local children are usually transported to Shriners hospitals in Philadelphia or Ohio. Altoona Jaffa Shriners provide free transportation for children.