The Meade County Messenger wrote a story about the youth hunt found here:
Meade County Messenger ArticleThe Turret also wrote a story about the youth hunt found here:
Turret ArticleReposted below with permission.
Local QDMA chapters host successful military youth hunt
Thursday, October 20, 2011 at 4:14 pm (Updated: October 20, 6:02 pm)
By SETH LAMAR
Turret Sports Editor
seth.c.lamar.ctr@us.army.mil
For many outdoorsmen, going deer hunting as a child with a parent or
mentor is a rite of passage into the natural world that is increasingly
forgotten.
For some children, the opportunity to make a memory or get that
essential head start as a sportsman might be put on hold while their
parent is serving abroad to defend the United States.
Two chapters of the Quality Deer Management Association teamed together
to make sure the children of service members in the theatre of battle
wouldn’t be left at home during this season’s youth hunt weekend held on
Oct. 8-9 across the state of Kentucky.
Chairman of the Derby City Chapter of QDMA, Joe Shreves spearheaded the
effort to get 30 children from military families involved in a local
hunt with a mentor. The weekend hunt was held on private farms in Meade
and Hardin County along with the Hardin County Landfill.
“We mainly hunted on two properties, Grand View Hunt Club, which is my
farm and we hunted the Hardin County Landfill,” Shreves said.
Of the 30 kids who participated, 17 came from Fort Campbell, six from
Fort Knox, two from the Navy, and four from families with a member in
the National Guard. Lodging and meals for the youth hunters and their
mentors were provided by the YMCA and Camp Piomingo at the Otter Creek
Outdoor Recreation Area during their four-day stay.
Over the course of their stay, the youth hunters from military families
took in a wealth of information on all aspects of deer hunting ranging
from the biology of the whitetail deer, the elements of deer hunting,
marksmanship, field processing, and first aid in the field.
Representatives from the Army, Navy, and the Kentucky Department of Fish
and Wildlife Resources educated the young hunters on a variety of
useful information, but Shreves says the parents prepared their children
well for the hunter education course.
“I was really impressed that the parents of these kids got them through
the online course because I took it to see what they would be dealing
with and it is six good hours if you did it correctly,” he said.
The deer hunt finally kicked off early Saturday morning and even Shreves was surprised at how quickly the kids found success.
“Five different deer came back that morning and I was shocked,” he said.
“Based on that, I figured Saturday evening we would’ve had 10 deer come
in, but we only had three more come in.”
A total of 13 deer were harvested over the course of the hunt, with
Aubrey Zroback, 9, of Fort Knox harvesting two does within 30 minutes
with the help of her mentor, Sgt. Marriette Rideout of Special Troops
Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division.
Shreves says some of the meat went home with the youth hunters, but
approximately 85 percent of the deer harvested went to “Dare to Care”, a
part of the “Hunters for the Hungry” program to help the less
fortunate.
This year’s youth hunt was sponsored by much needed sponsors such as BAE
Systems, Bass Pro Shops, Plano, Cabelas, Society of Military Engineers
(SAME), WMMG Radio, Raytheon, Hunters for the Hungry, YMCA, Camp
Piomingo, Walmart, and KDFWR among others to cover the cost and
resources for the event ranging from $15,000 to $20,000 but the Derby
City branch of the QDMA has bigger plans for the future.
“This year we originally planned to have 50 kids and thank goodness we
only got 30 because it was a good test run,” Shreves said. “Next year,
we hope to expand the hunt to be statewide and work with all seven or
eight branches of QDMA in the state.”
