2009 ULTIMATE GIRLS HUNT
The 2009 Ultimate Girls hunt was held in beautiful Chowan County again this year on October 30th thru November 1st. This is an annual National Hunt put on by Hunters Helping Kids Inc. and hosted by the Albemarle Area Hunters Helping Kids Chapter.
The girls (6) came from upstate New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and North Carolina. All of the girls names were drawn from the Hunters Helping Kids Inc. National Ultimate Hunt pool of applications. The excitement on the girls faces as they arrived at the Hunt Headquarters on Friday spoke for itself. During the evening hours on Friday, the girls met their guides, received their clothing and guns. They also received a safety orientation and a very informative program from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) Biologist Chris Turner. The girls were then able to practice with their rifles and gain confidence with them anticipating the next morning's hunt.
On Saturday morning at 5am, everyone met prior to going to the stands. Juice, coffee and Danish were enjoyed and then it was off to the woods. Reports began coming in that the deer were not moving that morning. All of the girls came back with stories of seeing some deer but no one had scored. However no girl reported any dismay, but only pleasure of being in the outdoors and seeing nature at its finest. Everyone returned to the Hunt Headquarters for a hearty breakfast and then back to the motel for some rest. Saturday afternoon brought everyone back to the hunt Headquarters for lunch and a program by regional Hunter Safety Specialist David Denton of the NCWRC who gave everyone the opportunity to shoot skeet with a shotgun. All of the girls participated and with not too bad shooting skills. After the skeet shooting, it was off to the woods again. Reports began coming in vie cell phones. Eddie reported that "we have a buck we're loading." YEA!!!!! Wingnut reported two does from Jeff's stand.
Everyone gathered in front of the Hunt Headquarters with great anticipation as the trucks came in. Wingnut pulls up with horns sticking up over the side of his truck bed a cheer went up when he stopped and the horns were seen. Yea, he got me and others with a set of horns about 15" wide, duct taped to a doe's head. It was fun and you have to know Wingnut. The hunt was a big success as was evident by every girls' emotion and the gratitude shown to us by the parents and the girls. The total deer harvested was 1 buck and 2 does, hooray for Nicole and Sasha. Everyone took something home with them in the experience of sharing with us, Hunters Helping Kids.
A special thanks to our sponsors, land owners, Chris Turner and David Denton from the NCWRC, Leon Nixon's catering and most of al our Chapter Members. With everyone's efforts we made this Hunter Helping Kids national hunt a success.
Submitted by: Tommy Castelloe
Letters from Participants in the 2009 Ultimate Girls Hunt
Wingnut,
I just wanted to thank you for being my guide during the hunt. I had the best time of my life. I wish I could do it again. Even though I did not get anything I still had a lot of fun. Everyone there was great and really nice. I hope this program keeps going on forever. Thank you so much. My mom and dad said if you are ever up here in New York you should stop by. Oh I almost forgot thank you for helping me get my rifle. My brothers all want it but I tease them and tell them "NO WAY" its mine HAHAHA.Love,
Amber
Leon,
We just wanted to drop you all a note to say thank you all for having us down for the all girls hunt. Amber had a great time and wants to come back again. Your program is great. Everyone there was so great to us all and we could not have asked for more. The food was fantastic. Amber really wants us to take her hunting up here in New York but as you know she is still to young here. Guess we will just have to take another trip down that way to take her again. Tell everyone down there thanks again and that we said HI. If any of you are up here in New York stop by, you all are more than welcome.Thank You All
Anthony and Alicia
Letters from Participants in the 2010 Spring Kids Fun Day
Albemarle Area Hunters Helping Kids,
Thank you for taking me to the shooting range. It was very fun. You taught me a lot it was my first time shooting sporting clays and only my second time shooting a shotgun. Thank you Mrs. Jennie and Mr. David for helping me at the stands.Thanks again,
Drew
AAHHK,
Thank you AAHHK for the Kids Fun Day. I had a lot of fun. The best thing to me was that I broke the most clays. Thank you Mrs. Jennie and Mr. David for the help with the guns and how to shoot. Thank you Mr. Tommy for keeping score.Thank You
Caleb
Letters From Participants in the 2010 Fall Kids Fun Day
A Big Thank You!!
Thank you again for a wonderful day with my kids yesterday at Hunters' Pointe. They were very excited. Ethan wants to take his friends now and Autumn it was definitely an experience for her.
Sincerely,
Melissa
Letters from Participants in the 2010 Ultimate Girls Hunt
Albemarle Area Hunters Helping Kids,
We would like to say we are so thankful for the opportunity you have given our daughter, Alexis. She had so much fun, as did her dad and I. For you and your fellow hunters to give up a day of your hunting for these young ladies says a lot to the kindness and love you have in your heart. You touched our hearts deeply and will always have a place there. People always reach to the service member and forget they have a child. You went a step further you thought about that child. You showed that child that there are people out there that care about them also. So again I say thank you for all that you did and continue to do. Please pass this to your fellow hunters and helpers.Christy Jo
It's All About The KIDS
2011 Ultimate Girls Hunt
"Hunters Helping Kids" Zeroes-In on Veteran Outreach Efforts
Story by Maj. Scott Bell, S.C. National Guard Historian
EDENTON, N.C. – Here, in the historically-rich port town of Edenton, the first capital of colonial North Carolina, five very patriotic hunting buddies got together in the fall of 2005, and began putting-to-paper their dream of creating a 501(c)3 organization to help kids connect with the great outdoors at little to no cost to the child’s parent.
Since then, “Hunters Helping Kids” (HHK) has expanded into 11 states and continues their charter effort of keeping the hunting heritage alive in America by educating youth about conservation and wildlife management through outdoor sports.
Five years later, HHK began to zero-in their veteran outreach effort to kids who had suffered a parent killed or wounded in our nation’s Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). “Hunters Helping Kids just felt we needed to do something to make sure every one of our veterans and their families know how much we appreciate their sacrifices,” said Dale S. Dodson, director of national operations for HHK.
In 2011, HHK expanded their veteran outreach efforts to the kids of all GWOT veterans. “Our goal is to make sure any kid that wants to go outside and go hunting can,” said Dodson, who feels today’s operational tempo prevents a lot of military members from having the time they would like to enjoy outdoor sports with their kids.
“By offering this service free-of-charge, our veterans families don’t have to stretch already thin budgets to enjoy outdoor sports with their kids,” said Dodson, who gave HHK $10,000 of his own money to help the organization get started in 2005.
Dodson, who has worked in wildlife conservation for over 24 years, considers firearm and hunter safety the number one priority of HHK. “No matter which HHK chapter you go to -- from upstate New York to southern Texas – these kids and their parents are educated by professionals such as David Denton and Chris Turner, from N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission District 1, before they enjoy our outdoor sports,” said Dodson.
Throughout the year, in a variety of states, HHK offers free opportunities for kids to enjoy “Fun Days,” to shoot sporting clays, rifles and do some fishing. They also offer kids guided “Ultimate Kids Hunts” where a vetted professional guide and a parent of each kid accompanies the child on what -- for many -- is their first opportunity to hunt big game.
One such Ultimate Kids Hunt occurred last weekend in Edenton from Nov. 4-6, and was hosted by the Albemarle Area chapter of HHK. “Ultimate Kids Hunts are a little more special than most of our hunts and fun days because each child receives a new rifle and scope, hunting clothes, hotel accommodations, deer processing and a backpack full of hunting gear we hope will last the child until they are adults,” said Dodson.
Ultimate Kids Hunts cost HHK $1,500 per child so it only costs a veteran’s family the cost of their travel expenses to and from the event to enjoy the adventure. “We typically have six kids attend an Ultimate Kids Hunt,” says Dodson, who plans on expanding the program to 20-30 kids at a time sometime in the near future.
“We have some fantastically generous sponsors, land-owners and tremendously talented and vetted volunteer hunting guides in all of our chapters, who are ready and willing to make a difference in the lives of these veterans’ kids and their families,” said Dodson. Additionally, Troy Miller of the “Backcountry Bad Boys” outdoor wildlife show, produced by the Miller Creek Production Company, covers HHKs Ultimate Kids Hunts, helping to share both the fun of HHK hunts and the tremendous sacrifices of our veterans’ families. This year’s Edenton hunt is scheduled to air on Backcountry Bad Boys in late January 2012.
Dodson feels the hardest part of reaching out to the military community to tell them about HHK was figuring out who were the right people to talk to. “A lot of our older members who grew up during the Vietnam War or Desert Storm had never heard of a Family Programs Office so now that we know there’s folks like James Harris, a Youth Services Coordinator with the S.C. National Guard’s Family Programs Office, we’ll be in touch with him a lot more often,” said Dodson.
Participating in this year’s Ultimate Kids Hunt were two daughters of full-time S.C. National Guardsmen, three daughters of Marines stationed at Camp Lejeune and a young Rockwell, N.C. girl, who is blind in one eye. All six girls, who had never harvested a deer before, went home with at least one.
Scoring the largest buck during the Ultimate Kids Hunt was Victoria Peavy of West Columbia, the 15 year-old daughter of Sgt. 1st Class John Peavy of the S.C. National Guard. She also harvested a doe later on Saturday afternoon. Thanks to the generosity of Scott Taxidermy in Edenton, Peavy’s buck will be mounted for free as a permanent reminder of her HHK experience. “I can’t thank Hunters Helping Kids, my guide Jeff Scott, Scott Taxidermy and all of the wonderful people who made this very special weekend possible for me enough,” said Victoria Peavy during the awards banquet Saturday night.
“To see the smile on her face, that little extra pride she has in herself and the love everyone involved in Hunters Helping Kids has shown us is just simply incredible,” said Sgt. 1st Class John Peavy.
The elder Peavy echoed a sentiment familiar by all of the fathers of kids involved in the Ultimate Kids Hunt. “This was a rare opportunity for Rebecca and me to spend time together doing something we enjoy. I can’t thank our guide Ray Harrell and HHK enough,” said Marine Staff Sgt. Jared Dugger of Hubert, N.C., whose 13-year-old step-daughter Rebecca lost her dad Marine Cpl. Charles Palmer during an IED attack in Iraq in 2007.
“The weekend Madison and I spent with our guide Eddie Wynn and HHK really brought us closer together,” said Marine Sgt. Lenny Leonard of Mayesville, N.C.
Marine Sgt. Jason Wimer of Camp Lejeune, N.C., expressed similar sentiments toward his daughter Caitlin’s guide Jennie Droze and HHK. “Being able to see my daughter harvest her first deer was by far the most fulfilling outdoor experience I have ever had,” said Wimer.
James Green, the father of Kathryn Green, who is blind in one eye, expressed his thanks to HHK and Leon Nixon, Kathryn’s guide in a very poignant way. “She’s really limited on what she can do and it meant the world to me to see them help her find something fun that she can also do,” said Green.
All six girls and their fathers were positively impacted by the Hunters Helping Kids Ultimate Kids Hunt experience but perhaps the strongest statement about the weekend came from 11-year-old Abby Bell of Moncks Corner, S.C. Right after her dad tucked her into bed Saturday night, she asked him to text her guide Tim Proctor the following message: “Mr. Tim, today was the most remarkable day of my life. Thank you!”
