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Doug Clark: Auction of Navy SEALs’ military mementos reveals true honor
Chance, last name Hughs, decided to fill a small shadowbox with a few mementos from his days as a Navy SEAL and then auction it off at the annual Northwest Sportsman Club fundraiser.
The 48-year-old had seen similar shadowbox auctions for charity at SEAL gatherings. At this event, held a week ago Saturday at Spokane Valley’s Mirabeau Park Hotel, Hughs wanted the proceeds to go toward purchasing a track chair.
Also called an “off-road wheelchair,” a track chair gives a paralyzed or disabled person the mobility to explore and enjoy the great outdoors.
Club leaders had told Hughs they weren’t so sure his shadowbox would fit in with the Sportsman Club’s event, which made the ex-warrior all the more determined.
So, after the glazed ham and roast turkey had been attacked and conquered, Hughs showed his unscheduled auction item to the 200 in attendance.
That’s when something remarkable occurred.
Thomas Norris, 72, happened to be attending the banquet fundraiser thanks to a neighbor’s invitation.
Norris, Hughs said, is not only a former Navy SEAL, but a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor.
In April 1972 during the Vietnam War, then-Lt. Norris led a daring rescue of “two downed pilots deep within heavily controlled enemy territory,” states the Medal of Honor website.
“By his outstanding display of decisive leadership, undaunted courage and selfless dedication in the face of extreme danger, Lt. Norris enhanced the finest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.”
Through a Sportsman Club official, Norris declined to be interviewed for this column.
Hughs, however, spoke at length with Norris about the shadowbox at the event. Impressed by the effort, the older man decided to add his Medal of Honor challenge coin to the patches and survival knife that Hughs had sequestered inside the small box.
And so the spirited bidding began.
One thousand. Two thousand. Three thousand…
Eying Norris’ challenge coin, Hughs thought, “I’m gonna buy my stuff back.”
Who could blame him?
In the end, however, a Spokane railroad conductor named Kevin Oberst won the box with a high bid of $7,250.
Oberst said he was motivated by the presence of the two SEALs and what their service represented.
An avid outdoorsman, Oberst said he also loved the idea of helping a disabled hunter or fisherman.
The track chair effort was launched by Jamie Belknap, a recent Eastern Washington University graduate majoring in early childhood education.
“It’s amazing,” Oberst said. “A 23-year-old wanted to do this, and it just happened that night.”
It’s true, confirmed Jamie’s mom, Theresa. More donations poured in after the shadowbox auction, enough to cover a $15,000 track chair plus options.
“I’m speechless over how generous the Spokane community is,” she said, adding that her daughter came up with the track chair idea after watching two disabled veterans who were using track chairs at a club shoot last fall.
After the final bid, Jamie “had tears running down her face,” Theresa said. “She couldn’t believe it.”
This Northwest Sportsman Club sounds like a good-hearted bunch.
Shadowbox aside, the club’s annual auction and fundraiser brought in enough money to support area youth and adult shooting teams, hunter education, conservation projects and other worthwhile efforts.
And no one who was there will forget the night when the Northwest Sportsman Club took a Chance.
“All of us are still in this shocked state,” Theresa said. “We’re all just shaking our heads, like, did this just happen?”
Doug Clark is a columnist for The Spokesman-Review. He can be reached at (509) 459-5432 or by email at dougc@spokesman.com.