Every year, I conduct 50 to 60 seminars at various outdoor shows, stores and events all the way from Texas to Vegas and sometimes on up to Alaska.
But one of the most fulfilling and fun events I get to participate in is the Scooter’s Youth Hunting Camp in Emmett, Idaho. It’s a cool deal.
To show how popular that it is, this year it filled up with 250 kids in 47 seconds. Wow, that’s unbelievable.
Scott McGann started it 17 years ago mainly to help young single moms with their kids. He knew without a dad in the family that the chances were slim for their kids to be able to get into the outdoor world unless they got some help.
It’s a topic that is near and dear to him. If it hadn’t been for his granddad, him and his brother wouldn’t have ever been introduced to the outdoors. Consequently, Scott is a hardcore outdoorsman.
I’ve helped with the camp since about 2005. It just keeps getting better and better. It’s one of the most fulfilling outdoor events of my year.
Here’s how the event works: Years ago, kids mailed in their registrations. As time passed, we had to move to an online registration to keep it organized.
It is always the first Saturday in May. Some years the weather is perfect. One year it was cold, rainy and windy. I mean real windy. And some years it has been scorching hot. Since that year a decade ago, Blue Lizard sunscreen has supplied sunscreen packs for all of the kids. But get over it. Weather is a part of the outdoors. Not all trips are on bluebird sunny days.
On Saturday morning, the kids all get in line to get signed in. They are divided into six groups and given color-coded bracelets. Next, we say the Pledge of Allegiance and then a local pastor says a prayer. Then it’s off to the races.
Group one will start at the trap throwing station. Group two goes to the .22 range. Group three goes to the blackpowder range. Group four goes the archery range. Group five goes to the knife sharpening/gun gleaning station. Group six goes to the survival station.
After their session, they gather in the meeting area, where chairs are set up in front of the podium for them to sit. A seminar will be conducted by a pro-staff member. Then they will go to session two and repeat throughout the day. I love the seminars. They’re informative and I always learn new hunting techniques.
The seminar instructors aren’t newbies. We’re talking like Rockie Jacobsen with Rocky Mountain Hunting Calls and Supplies (his son Cory is an eight-time world champion elk caller), the Carp Cartel and the list goes on. At lunch, they all convene for a great lunch of hot dogs and hamburgers cooked by volunteers. Lunch is free for the kids thanks to an unbelievable response from local businesses.
After lunch, the stations are completed and then comes Scott’s favorite time — the Kid’s Raffle! Local businesses and all manner of outdoor company’s items have been donated for the kids drawing. There are some super cool prizes. Bows, backpacks, hunts, a fishing trip and the list goes on.
I can’t even begin to list all of the companies. Knives of Alaska, Smith’s Consumer Products, Blue Lizard, Otis, Birchwood Casey Sporting Goods, Fur-Fish-Game magazine, Spyderco, Swab-its, Puma Knife Company, Leupold: It’s a long, long list.
It’s a good day to be a kid!
A fun deal for the adults is the raffle table. There are all kinds of cool items on the table and all of the proceeds go to support the camp. It’s a first-rate camp, and all the kids get to go free because of donations and volunteer help. There’s not one person that is on paid staff. I like that.
While on that topic, I see a lot of causes start off for a good reason but then it ends up someone tries to turn it into a money-making profession. I understand how that happens. You think this doesn’t take a lot of time? We start having camp meetings in January. Then there’s all the legwork getting donations and things set up. I understand how someone wants to turn it into a profession but I think they tend to lose the pureness of the goal in the process.
We have a meeting tonight, then one final one next week and then it’s game on. I can’t wait.
Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana.
He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop.
