.jpg "A member of the Pennsylvania Game Commission assists a young hunter with his .22 during the 1988 International YHEC at Fort Indiantown Gap in Annville, Pa.")
When 400 young hunters arrive in Pennsylvania’s Northern Tier next month for NRA’s International Youth Hunter Education Challenge (YHEC), it will mark the 25th anniversary of one of the most successful hunter education programs in history.
With the entire hunting community concerned about the decline in hunter numbers, YHEC is one of the few bright spots when it comes to hunter recruitment and retention. Fifty thousand youngsters participate in YHEC programs throughout the United States and Canada each year, and the majority of those participants continue hunting.
Since its founding in 1985, YHEC has helped create a generation of the safest, most responsible, most knowledgeable young hunters you’ll find anywhere. In the process, the program has sparked lifelong friendships, ignited a passion for the outdoors in more than 1.3 million kids, and created a close-knit family of volunteers, coaches, participants and alumni that has few equals.
“I hate to single anyone out, there are just so many stories to tell and great people I’ve met,” said Charlie Fox, a retired Deputy Game Protector from Bradford County, Pa., who oversees the muzzleloading event at the International YHEC and has been involved with YHEC since it began. “It’s not uncommon to have 12- or 15-year friendships through YHEC. YHEC is one of those things that’s near and dear to my heart.”
Mentoring is really what YHEC is all about—teaching kids about firearms and bows, hunting ethics, safety, and the ways of the woods. In a day and age when technology keeps kids indoors an
d face-to-face interaction has been replaced by text messages and video screens, YHEC stimulates kids to get out and explore the outdoors, learn about the world around them, and teaches a sense of responsibility that cannot be attained in front of a computer screen.
“YHEC teaches kids something that they can’t learn in school,” said Jennifer Morgan, assistant hunter education coordinator for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish and a YHEC volunteer. “It teaches them things like sportsmanship, commitment, effort and friendship. Once you get involved in YHEC it’s like a second family.”
“YHEC teaches responsibility and ethics and a positive mental attitude that young people can carry with them for a lifetime,” added Gary Jobe, Arkansas’ state YHEC coordinator. “That’s the rewarding part—working with these young kids year after year and seeing them mature and advance.”
The culmination of the YHEC program is the annual International YHEC, which alternates each year between Mansfield, Pa., and the NRA Whittington Center in Raton, N.M. This year’s International YHEC will be held in Mansfield July 26-30.
But the skills kids learn though YHEC manifest themselves long before attending the International. Youngsters spend countless hours after school and on weekends practicing their shooting, studying hunter safety, and learning how to identify wildlife and read a map and compass. They also participate in regional and state YHECs before attending the International event.
All YHEC participants must first complete a conventional hunter education course, such as the ones offered by state fish and game agencies. Billed as a “graduate” hunter education course, YHEC bridges the gap between basic hunter education and more advanced hunting.
The end result is not only do the kids become better hunters, they oftentimes become lifelong hunters.
“NRA’s 25-year commitment to training young hunters through the YHEC program has benefited not just the participants, but hunting itself,” said Kayne Robinson, Executive Director of NRA General Operations and a lifelong hunter. “A variety of forces are combining to drive the number of hunters down and to make hunting more difficult for the average person. Programs like YHEC that recruit and retain more hunters thus become vital to the future. It is hunters’ dollars that pay for wildlife conservation in this country, and the decline in the number of hunters must be reversed.
“Ultimately, it is young hunter from YHEC who will carry on the many battles to defend and advance hunters’ rights: ‘animal rights’ groups that would ban hunting; government agencies that would close shooting ranges and restrict hunter access to public lands; and bureaucracies that would make hunting too expensive or too burdened with over-regulation. And in time, it is these hunters who will ensure our own sons and daughters carry on the tradition of hunting in America.”
Many former YHEC participants are still involved in the program today and volunteer their time as coaches and mentors. Still more YHEC alumni were inspired to pursue careers in the outdoors based on their positive experiences in the program.
“[YHEC] started me down my career path,” said former YHEC participant Greg Fleming, now a wildlife biologist. “While I attended YHEC, I met a lot of volunteers who worked in wildlife- and conservation-related fields. Talking with them made me realize that I wanted the same type of job. I became particularly interested in how hunting is used as a management tool. As a wildlife biologist, I must identify numerous species of waterfowl, and I rely on the key concepts related to wildlife identification that I learned while participating in YHEC.”
Kelcey Burguess, another YHEC alumni, is now a black bear biologist for the New Jersey Division of Wildlife.
“My participation in YHEC has been a major asset to my life,” he said. “My accomplishments in the program impressed my college professors, because they saw I had the discipline and desire to stick with a career in wildlife. After graduation, I started working in wildlife control, which required me to take the same shooting test that police officers have to pass. I credit passing the test to the firearms safety and shooting skills that I developed through my participation in YHEC.
“I’m now trying to get my area of New Jersey involved with YHEC because it’s great for kids.”
Allen Treadwell, a member of the Bass Pro Shops Redhead Pro Hunting Team and co-host of hunting television shows for Bass Pro Shops, Hunter’s Specialties and Winchester, participated in YHEC while growing up in Missouri. He’s also a former member of the USA Shooting International Skeet team, and he was an alternate for the 2004 U.S. Olympic team.
“I truly credit YHEC to my birth in this industry,” Treadwell said. “Had it not been for the Youth Hunter Education Challenge, this opportunity would not exist, either on the Olympic side of the game or being able to make my living in the outdoors. I grew up in a hunting family, and YHEC was just an opportunity for me to get to learn more and practice more with my bow and arrow and my guns. The shooting aspect of the event was always my favorite, but YHEC also helped me learn the book side of things. The animal identification was one of my favorites. I use the skills that I learned in the Hunter Safety Trail and the hunter safety exam and the orienteering and the animal identification every day of my life as an outdoor professional.”
As YHEC participants, volunteers, sponsors and staff prepare to celebrate the memories, friendships and successes of the past 25 years, NRA remains as committed as ever to training tomorrow’s hunters—and inspiring them to carry on the hunting tradition.
“Being a mentor and extending our knowledge to young people is key,” said Harry Street, a retired game warden for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, who oversees the archery event at the International YHEC. “It’s important to get kids into the outdoors and away from the TV. We have the chance to teach kids how to properly handle guns and archery equipment—lessons that can stick with a young person for a lifetime.”
For help in starting a YHEC program in your area, or to get involved as a volunteer or participant, visit www.nrayhec.org, call 703-267-1508 or send an e-mail to maguilar@nrahq.org. To make a donation to YHEC, call 1-877-NRA-GIVE or visit www.nragive.com.
