Whitetail Heritage of Ohio holds annual fundraiser

Whitetail Heritage of Ohio holds annual fundraiser
                        

Hey everybody — just want to say a thank-you to all the well wishers as I actually had my 16th birthday last week. Yes, my 16th real birthday — when you only get a real birthday every four years (leap year, Feb. 29), it’s special. I’ll let you do the math.

I joined a special Facebook site for leap year babies from all over the world, and it is amazing. I know a few here locally that share that day. They say the odds of being born on leap year are 1 in 1,461, and there are currently 187,000 in the United States. Worldwide, there are about 5 million (depending on who you ask).

For our top story, the long awaited Whitetail Heritage of Ohio annual fundraiser was held at the Heritage Hall on Feb. 21. I have had the privilege of helping this newly formed organization over the past few years, as it strives to make a difference in the lives of young hunters and in the whitetail world.

Over the past few years, this fundraiser just gets bigger. Two years ago they had planned for 600, and the night of the banquet, we got pelted with a major blizzard. My memory of that night still lingers as close to 570 still came. I guess it shows what our hunters are made of.

Then again, last year they just kept getting requests for tickets. Eventually we had to stop at about 650. This year they debated moving the event to a larger venue, but most places were already booked, so we decided to stay with the Heritage.

This year the WHOO organization hosted about 830 guests in another night of memories. Among our special guests were the young people and their families from this year’s youth hunt, held at the Pilgrim Hills campground last October. That night 18-of-21 youth hunters harvested a deer. A few of these received mounts of their deer, paid for by the organization.

Also present were representatives from the Ohio Division of Wildlife, the Hunt for Hope (another quality youth hunter organization) and Porky, the amazing whitetail tracking dog. Owned by Edward and Kevin Schlabach (who also were present), this canine was responsible for helping us find five of the deer in October when the trail was lost. Amazing!

Many raffles and games were played. Many guns and prizes were won. Many friendships were renewed. Many stomachs were filled, as the meal, prepared by Byler’s BBQ, was served buffet style with eight lines moving. I believe we got everyone through (the first helping) in about 35 minutes.

Probably the highlight of the night was a raffle for a special edition .45-70, which the WHOO had engraved with their logo and the date. It was announced proceeds from this raffle were to go to the family of Clemance Hochstedler, who recently was killed in a farming accident. Six mugs were raffled off with numbers on them. Then five were eliminated by drawing. To top it off, the winner gave the gun to the family in Mr. Hochstedler’s honor.

In all, the proceeds from that raffle topped $20,000 with a lot of tears and applause from the crowd — what a supportive community we live in. Also, thanks to the Orange Crushers club that helped clean up afterward. We were exhausted.

Finally, as we approach my retirement date and the anxiety of selling our farm and moving to Kentucky, I once again ask for your prayers. After all we’re chasing the dreams that we talk about in our Someday column. We are totally selling out to God’s direction and trust him to guide us.

As I sang in our church praise team a couple weeks ago, we sang a song from Casting Crowns titled “Here’s My Heart, Lord.” As we got to the final chorus, which says, “Here’s My Life, Lord,” my eyes swelled with tears, my heart beat in my chest and my soul recommitted to the one true God who loves me. And you know what? He loves you too!

God bless.


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