The Fern 45

The Fern 45 is a 501-3c non-profit organization hosting an annual Off-Road Poker Run and a Golf Tourney. The poker run takes place in the first week of November (right before daylight savings) and near Veterans Day. The Golf tourney is in May on Armed Forces day. Profits from each of these events go directly to Veteran-based programs in Nevada.

The growth of this organization and event has been something that none of the board members expected! It's warms our hearts knowing that we can have an impact on the lives of our Veterans and their families. If you have ever attended an event of ours, you will see the comradery between the participants and feel the sense of pride of everyone there. Every person attending will feel this immense gratitude for our past and present Veterans, with a bonus of getting to celebrate our Nevada backyard!

Since our beginning in 2015, we have gone from donating a laptop and a $1,200 check, to donating over $100,000 to Nevada Veterans. Each year (not including 2020), we have managed to raise our donation check. You can visit our website to see exactly where our donation went each year. We are always excited to spread the wealth to our Veterans each year!

Our president and founder wrote this origin story for those who wish to wonder where we started...

Ahhhh....The Fern 45!
Where do I start?
It started out just wanting to have a poker run in the desert with friends and family so I could share some cool trails and views with them. Shortly after...it was planned! It just happened to be Veteran's day 2015! Figured we would charge our buddies 25 bucks, winner takes all with a party afterwards, sounded great! THEN IT CLICKED! "It's Veteran's day, why don't we donate to them?" After a couple calls to Mr. Brett Palmer of the Nevada Veteran's Coalition, it was known that they could use a new laptop, we were on it! We will get you two! (Me being confident our friends could raise enough money to handle it) Thinking if we had 30 people show up it would be super fun and a party for the books. Boy, oh, boy... I was mistaken! Somewhere around 135 people showed up, including the coalition themselves! We ended up getting them that laptop and 1200 bucks! The support from friends, family, and the community of Fernley was so awesome. I, personally, will never forget the parade of rigs marching up the dirt road to participate. The sense of pride, overwhelming, to the point i almost cried. (Okay, not gonna lie, I shed a few tears) The team of my immediate family and a few friends has turned into a committed organization that's willing to donate their time, money, and huge efforts each year to keep the drive alive.

I like to call it "fun"draising! This will be our 6th year raising money for veteran's and their programs. On behalf of each crew member that has ever volunteered, no matter amount of time or energy; to all the sponsors, no matter amount donated; and especially to the 95 Motorsports Complex for providing the area to stage all you "off-road crazy-heads"! We have donated somewhere around $50,000 now!! I never thought this would be an annual event, but here we are.

Lets do this, have fun, be safe always...

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

-Kelly Walsh
(President/Founder of the Fern 45)