2011 Great Lakes Outdoors Youth Pheasent Hunt at Hay Marsh Hunt Club
October 8th, 2011
By Lee Zeidler, Executive Director                                                                                                

     Today was a fun day as we took 10 youth hunters Pheasant Hunters in Michigan. These hunters were all first time hunters, (first time pheasant hunters), and some had never even shot a shotgun before. Let’s start off with how this began. We worked on a grant with the Weatherby Foundation International to pay for the hunt last December. Originally we submitted a grant to take 50 kids over several areas of Michigan, but received a grant for $1000 to take 10 kids in one location. Then came the Remington Outdoors Foundation who stepped up and donated 10 Remington 870 Youth Shotguns (five 20 gauge and five 12 gauge) for the hunt and training. They also surprised us with a donation of 100 cases (that’s 1000 boxes) of Target ammo for training and classes for shotgun shooters.  Their total donation is almost $15,000 in retail value!

      So the hunt was on, and now we had to find some kids to go. The plan was to get them all through Hunters Safety, a Shotgun class, and then the hunt. Sherri Rosenburg volunteered to organize the event. She arranged the classes, and got all the kids in hunter’s safety. Without her organization and volunteer effort I could not have pulled this off. So everything was set and on Saturday everyone arrived at the Hay Marsh Hunt club in Morley Michigan. Kids were excited and it was arranged with Manager Tim Somerville to have each hunter go out with a dog and guide. We supplied a Mentor for each youth on the hunt, so volunteer Mentors Al Potas, Mike Keyes, and Bob Gehl from the Caledonia Sportsman’s got their walking in! Also, a huge thanks to the Caledonia Sportsman’s Club for letting us use their facility for shotgun training and clay pigeon donations!

      Each hunter went out one on one with the guide and dog, and mentor for a 3 bird hunt. They were supplied with Orange Safety Vests, Orange Hats, and guns and ammo for the hunt. It was a warm and sunny day, and every hunter got a bird, some came back in with two! The kids were all smiles, and for all of them they got a taste of Pheasant Hunting, and they got their first birds. Prior to going out to hunt, they got a Sporting Clays Station warm up, and some also shot afterwards. Anxious parents waited the return of each young hunter, and were equally excited to see their child with a bird.

     Everyone went back to the club house where Sherri Rosenburg and Michelle Rodriquez had arranged a nice lunch for over 30 people, and they kids then got a lesson on cleaning and dressing the birds. At the end of the day, they all left with some Pheasant to take home and eat.

     We hope to instill in every young hunter, gun safety, hunting ethics, and the joy of getting in the outdoors and realizing that hunting is a good thing! If it weren’t for our sponsors and volunteers we could not do these activities, so once again a huge thank you to all the volunteers and sponsors who participated in this event. We have pictures on Facebook “Great Lakes Outdoors Foundation” and thanks to Photographer Sandy Brown (GLOF Treasurer) she got a couple of great action shots with about half of the kids. Videographer David Tabor walked along with the other half of the kids and shot some video. The video will eventually get posted here, but in the mean time watch out for Michigan Out of Doors TV for a spot on this hunt in some future show!

Our Sponsors and their respective websites:

Remington Outdoors Foundation
http://www.outdoorroadmap.com/roadmap/remington-outdoor-foundation

Weatherby Foundation International
http://www.weatherbyfoundation.com

Hay Marsh Hunt Club, Morley, Michigan
www.haymarsh.com

Caledonia Sportsman’s Club, Caledonia, Michigan
http://www.calsportsmansclub.com/