Van Products became an official corporate sponsor of the North Carolina Handicapped Sportsmen Association in July of 2008 and sponsored our first event on November 20, 21 and 22, a deer hunt provided for 20 disabled hunters and held in the community of Caldwell, NC. The hosts for this event were the members of the Caldwell Hunt Club. The term "host" doesn't really describe all that this group of people contributed and did over the course of the event. Local landowners like Earl Brown and Lee Miller worked tirelessly to set up blinds and build stands all over their properties in the weeks building up to the actual event.
The hunt was organized to provide four hunting opportunities over the course of the three days, Thursday dusk, Friday dawn and dusk, and Saturday dawn. Many hunt club members gave of their time and energy rising in the early dark morning hours to head for the community center where they prepared hot coffee and filled the air with the welcoming scent of bacon, sausage, eggs, grits and biscuits. Everything was prepared and ready to serve at 5 am so that there would be time to eat and then get everyone out and ready to hunt before dawn. Hunt Club members prepared all of the meals and there were always cakes and other baked goods ready anytime anyone's hunger couldn't wait for the next mealtime.
While some men cooked, others stood ready near a roaring fireplace in the cold 23 degree temperature with snow falling all around, to skin the deer that were killed by the hunters and brought in by their guides. Each deer was weighed and each hunter's license flagged appropriately. The meat was then packaged in airtight bags, placed in coolers and put on ice so that each individual hunter could carry it home with them on Saturday. Some of the attendants were in wheel chairs, others were ambulatory with the aid of a prosthesis, walker, cane or crutch. Some did not appear to have a disability at all, but their stories involved injuries from roadside bombs in Iraq, tragic falls, and even one surreal story of a faulty office chair gone bad!
Each disabled participant was assigned a guide from one of the members of the Hunt Club. These men became the strong legs, backs, eyes and ears that were needed to get each hunter into a blind or stand and ready to hunt, and then to retrieve and carry out their kill and safely see them back to the warmth of the fire and the camaraderie of fellow hunters.
Van Products monetary donation secured the hotel rooms and helped with other expenses. We also provided a van to carry wheelchair hunters in and out of the woods and fields by one of the Van Products staff, but our contribution would have been futile without the organization of NCHS and the selfless endeavors of each of the participating members of the Caldwell Hunt Club. We are proud to be a sponsor of NCHS and to be associated with such a fine community of people who helped to provide such a wonderful experience for these disabled hunters.
Our second sponsored event was held just outside of Pollocksville, NC at the Eubanks Farm. Mr. Jesse Eubanks and his son John Ray maintain 1700 acres of preserved wetlands and allowed the NCHS to organize a deer hunt over the weekend of December 11, 12 and 13. They along with Mr. Jason Morris, another landowner from that area and several other volunteers deserve special thanks for helping to get hunters into place. The wetlands lived up to their name as heavy rain fell on Thursday night beginning just before the hunters came back from their first outing. Unlike the hunt in Caldwell, we were not able to utilize the wheel chair accessible minivan due to the wet, muddy terrain. It was so wet that a couple of big all terrain vehicles were used for transportation. It took until Friday afternoon before attempting to get the hunters back in their blinds and stands.
One of the stands was a HuntMaster tower stand that allows an otherwise grounded hunter to be lifted 21 feet into the air comfortably in a 5 by 6 foot camouflaged cabin with shooting openings on all four sides. The North Carolina Handicapped Sportsmen Association now has a Huntmaster available for use in each district in North Carolina.
One disabled hunter, Joe Kirkpatrick and his able bodied wife Yevette, came towing a trailer behind their full size van. Yevette set up the pop up blind in the back of the trailer, helped secure Joe's gun to his wheel chair and got him and his chair up the back ramp of the trailer and into the blind. Then the trailer was hitched to an ATV and pulled into place on the property along the edge of the woods. Yevette went along although she didn't hunt, and once they were ready to go home, she packed everything back up, hooked the trailer to the van and drove them both home. Kind of brings new meaning to the term "devoted wife."
Since there were fewer hunters than in Caldwell, there were fewer deer killed. Even with the inclement weather, the hunters and their guides once again enjoyed the company and camaraderie. One young man, the son of a wounded warrior, shot and killed his first deer with his father at his side beaming with pride. There were tales of close calls and even tuffs of white hair left behind as evidence of the grazing. There were sightings of bear crossings and pictures of a 595 lb black bear killed by John Eubanks earlier in the fall. The ducks and geese flew over and landed in the ponds made just for their arrival. And hunters, able bodied and disabled, started dreaming about a different kind of hunt.
For more information about these events please contact Janet Harmon at Van Products via jharmon@vanproducts.com or by phone at 919-863-1324. Also link to www.nchandicappedsportsmen.com
Special thanks to Janet Harmon for the write up and photos of this event.
