Last night I received a call from my friend Chuck Parr who is the President of the new local Delta Waterfowl chapter in Holly, MI.  He was excited to tell me some great news he had just received.

      He had just taken a call from a gentleman that was interested in joining the new Delta Waterfowl chapter that Chuck had started.  During the conversation, Chuck had learned that this person had been out of hunting for some time due to illness.  Now recovered this person was ready to jump back into the field and help out by joining the new chapter.  He also had an offer to Chuck and the new chapter that was already turned down by another hunting organization.  Why, it was turned down, no one knows!  This person has quite a sizeable amount of land that he owns and uses to hunt waterfowl on and allows others to hunt there as well.  But the offer was that he wanted to sponsor as many youth hunts as possible for the youngsters of the local area to enjoy.  He would allow the chapter to bring out youths for the Delta guided youth hunts. 

     This guy has missed hunting for years and knows what it means to get into the field.  He knows exactly what it is like to miss the opportunity to be able to hunt, so he put his actions to work.  He is allowing others to be able to give youth the opportunity to also enjoy the great outdoors. 

     This is what it is all about people!  It is high time that we as hunters and outdoorsmen need to step up to the plate and educate our youth and give them the opportunities to be able to enjoy the outdoors as much as we do!  This guy hasn’t hunted for some time and the first thing he does is make sure others have the opportunity to get out also.  I heard a statistic this last weekend about youth getting out and experiencing the outdoors.  It used to be by age 14 if they didn’t experience hunting or fishing they would more than likely not take it up.  That age has now dropped to 10 years of age!  So if we don’t take them out fishing or hunting with us, who will?  Next time you go out scouting, hunting, outdoors, fishing, or what ever, make sure you take a kid with you.  Find a kid in your neighborhood that you know probably won’t get the chance to hunt or fish if you don’t take him or her, and take them with you.  Kids today are begging to learn about our great outdoors, they just need someone to teach them.  That person is YOU!  Maybe we need to adopt a hunter or become like big brothers, big sisters.  We could call it Big Hunters, Big Anglers.  This is how we are going to save our great outdoor heritage, by taking kids one by one into the great outdoors. 

     I know that our local NWTF chapter, each year sponsors a youth for a guided turkey hunt.  We try to choose one that would not normally get the chance to get out with a mentor or parent into the woods for a turkey hunt.  I’m going to help Chuck this year with taking some youths on a guided waterfowl hunt with the local Delta Waterfowl chapter he started.  What are you going to do this fall?