Getting the Family Involved
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Professional Instructors Camp Woodie and Delta Waterfowl |
By Camp Woodie Director Brad Jones
As hunters we know our sport offers a great amount of camaraderie between our family and our friends. In today’s society, busy schedules and work demands do not allow most families to spend enough time together.
I remember, as a child, waking up early every Saturday in the fall and helping my grandfather load up his mob of Walker hounds. We were headed to the Pee Dee Hunting Club in Bennettsville, S.C. where we would meet my Dad and lots of friends and spend all day deer hunting. It was more than just hunting. It was time to talk about the good things that God had been gracious enough to bless us with like girls, football, jokes, and anything else under the sun.
This was where I learned respect and values around a great bunch of people. Lots of them are no longer around, including my Papa, but those memories always will remain with me.
After all those years, I have taken up many other forms of hunting and my Dad shares most of them with me. It all started right there at the Pee Dee Hunting Club.
My goal as director of Camp Woodie is to pass on to all campers the kind of early experiences that I had in the outdoors. When I started working at camp, we offered campers all of the aspects in learning about waterfowl and wildlife and have a great time doing so. One thing that we were missing was the involvement of the friends and families.
We began to incorporate family involvement into camp the first year I was the director. We offered parent/child duck hunts to all the children that attended the level II camps. These hunts have grown from approximately 40 campers in 1998 to over 170 for this upcoming season.
Another area that has really turned out to be excellent in family involvement is the Thursday night awards ceremony. Family and friends join all of the campers and camp staff for a supper and special awards for outstanding campers.
In addition every camper wins raffle prizes, and several win grand prizes, by drawing. Over fifty industry sponsors made these raffles possible. Over 500 campers in 2003 received very nice prizes thanks to these sponsors.
This past summer was our first attempt at a two-week camping session. Unsure of how to handle it, we invited the parents to come and be a part of the weekend festivities. Campers and parents were both given a chance to learn very detailed aspects of waterfowling together. A few campers cleaned and prepared lots of wild game earlier in the week and then showed their parents what they learned during the weekend.
The most intense and competitive activity was our shooters challenge. The contest combined the scores from a duck blind and walk through shoot. The shoot out of the duck blind not only required good shooting skills but also the ability to recognize different color clays that represented different species of waterfowl and various "no shoot" situations. Without a doubt the walk through course offered the toughest competition. We were able to add a woodland course with a grant funded by the NRA. The course can humble some of the best wingshooters. Every camper had a chance to team up with a guardian and compete against everyone else. Needless to say, after a week of shooting at camp, the campers had a thing or two to show Ole’ Dad. Thanks to Remington Arms for supplying us with shells, we were able to shoot over sixteen cases of shells that weekend alone.
Before next summer I hope that we can add new and improved aspects of Camp Woodie that will continue to get the family involved. These kids enjoy learning how to safely shoot sporting clays and archery, the do’s and don’ts of duck & goose calling, effective retriever training, and mouth watering wild game cooking. However, my greatest reward is to see the proud, wiser faces of the campers when parents and friends come on the last day to see them, and the kids can show everyone what they have learned.
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