The First Hunt Foundation's main emphasis is on mentoring
new hunters. Mentor-based experiences can develop life-long skills and a
passion for hunting. This support for hunting can be passed on to future
generations of new hunters.
As a Hunter Education Instructor, I help students take the
first step in the classroom. I know many
instructors also have live-fire components to their classes, which is awesome,
but many of us do not have access to a safe range or enough instructors to handle
the safety concerns that go along with this next level of training. Most of us just have the classroom and pass
on as much information and knowledge as we can in the prescribed time
constraints.
After many of my classes, I ask my students if they have
someone to hunt with or even plans in place to go hunting. Often, I hear that they will be hunting with
their family or friends for doves, duck or deer. Occasionally I hear that they have no one,
but just want to try it and don’t know where to go next. This has been distressing for me to
hear. I want to really try to help those
students take that step, but as one person, I can’t help them all. Those are the ones we really need to reach
out to. I have in the past compiled
lists of available hunts and experiences for new hunters and shared that with
my classes. I even had a local pheasant
club donate a 2 bird card for each of my successful students one year, and that
was pretty awesome. But if they didn’t
have someone to take them, they still did not get to go.
The First Hunt Foundation strives to change that. With our Mentor program, we are trying to
find those ‘lost’ students and help them get started in hunting beyond the
classroom. But that takes a lot of
Mentors. As we all know, our time is
precious, there are not enough weekends for us to hunt as much as we want just
for ourselves, let alone taking someone we don’t know hunting for the first
time. If some of us can take one person
hunting, we can make a difference. It
becomes a ripple effect, as that one person we help, now tells their story and
they can move forward helping others get started in the future.
And if you are someone looking to find what the next step in
to get into hunting, FHF is here for
you! You can contact me directly, or you
can go to the website and find a Mentor in your area!
I hear the statistics every year of the number of successful
students vs. the number of new licenses sold and the numbers never match
up. My goal is to get those numbers
closer, get more people actually involved beyond the classroom. I have wanted to do this since I became and
Instructor, and I am certain many of you feel the same way. When I heard about the First Hunt Foundation,
I knew I had to get involved. I have
been a mentor for three years now, and it has been incredibly satisfying to
help people with the real world knowledge of hunting. Now I have taken on the role of California
State Director to help build this program here in California. If you
are interested in becoming a Mentor with the First Hunt Foundation, or just
want to know more about FHF, please visit the website to see what we do, or
reach out to me and we will be happy to help you help others beyond the
classroom!