Participating adults may have looked at it as an opportunity to pass a legacy on to the next generation, but to the 59 kids who were part of this year’s Pulaski FFA Learn to Hunt Program, it was just cool to go turkey hunting.
“It’s just an amazing experience,” said Lauren Dixon, 12, who bagged her first turkey this season through the program. “I will definitely do this again.”
“I got my first deer this fall, and I think I like turkey hunting a little better than deer hunting,” said Paige Willer, 12, who also bagged her first tom this season through the program.
The Pulaski FFA and Pulaski Area Turkey Chasers have been working with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for the last several years to give children a chance to hunt.
“Our heritage in Wisconsin is hunting and gathering, and that particular aspect of life is being pushed aside by video games and social media,” said Terry Erdmann, the Learn to Hunt coordinator for the Pulaski. “So we’re trying to bring kids back to the environment, back to their natural resources, back to the wildlife.”
Hunting participants have been declining nationwide for the last several years. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported a 10 percent decrease in the number of active hunters through the middle of the last decade, but numbers in more recent years have rebounded slightly, Erdmann said. Programs like Learn to Hunt may be one of the reasons, he said.
Erdmann’s program, which he has been running for 14 years, brings landowners, experienced hunters and kids all together to make what previous generations may have taken for granted available to the newest generations for whom such activities may be completely foreign or inaccessible.
Kids and volunteer adults work to get landowners around the region to allow the kids to hunt on their land for two weekends each year. Experienced hunters serve as mentors to the kids, sometimes handling the firearm right up until the time when a turkey strays into range, when the child gets a chance to fire the shot.
“We all went them to get a shot, but that’s not always a reality,” said Gary Drzewiecki, president of the Pulaski turkey hunting group, who not only is one of the participating landowners but also serves as a mentor for the hunt.
Sunday was a chance for the kids to say thanks to the hundreds of landowners who donate the use of their land to the program and to the 65 adults who served as mentors. The group put on a luncheon Sunday at Pulaski High School to recognize that landowners, mentors and parents involved in the program. More than 300 people attended the two-hour event that featured a pot luck meal.
Many of the youngsters attending were still in their hunting camouflage. Some talked of having been successful earlier in the day, while others were clearly eager to get the luncheon over with so they could get back out on the field.
“We are taking two hours out of their hunting time, but we think it’s important for them to be here to thank the landowners who make this possible,” said Ken Jaworski, vice president of the Pulaski Area Turkey Chaser.
While the event is organized by Pulaski volunteers, some of the land used for the hunt is as far away as Kewaunee County, and kids from Howard, Green Bay and the Shawano area were among the 59 who participated in this year’s hunt, Erdmann said.
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