With the backing and support of Quail Unlimited (NE GA chapter) in Athens, the help and financial aid of many friends and local businesses, (Georgia Outdoor Sports, Home Depot, George Walton Academy, Farmer’s Hardware in Madison, All Seasons Rental in Conyers, Spring Street Studios in Monroe, Social Circle Dept. of Public Safety, Highland Golf Course in Conyers,) and the many others that contributed personal items, our efforts combine to make an unusual opportunity for kids to participate in a sport that would otherwise be unattainable. On our opening day shoot, you can observe kids in wheelchairs, transported by ATVs and golf carts with trailers, on the field excitingly trying to swing on passing doves, and having the most exhilarating time of their life. And of course, there will always be adult shooters who “back them up” and sometimes, we never know just who harvested a bird but it always goes to the kid’s pile. It’s just our way of “giving back to others” for the good fortune and blessings that we have experienced in our lives.

This year, due to the hardships of last year’s drought, the field was planted very early on with bands of winter wheat throughout. As that crop matured out, days were devoted to plowing and planting of 20 acres of corn, grain sorghum, dove proso, brown top, and fox tail millet. All such crops were banded with Egyptian wheat around the perimeter and a strip through the middle of the field where a fake power line has been installed that stretches for 300 yards. In the center and low area of the food plot, a watering hole was excavated for “run-off” with two tractors (front end loaders) underneath the “fake power line.”

This sounds like a lot of work, and it is but it’s now eight years in the making. It is our endeavor to provide year round food sources for all of the Alcovy River basin wildlife. Also included in our efforts and rules, is a per hunter tally of doves harvested and number of shells fired by invitees. Our concern in this vein is the total lead content being deposited on the field each year. All spent hulls are required to be picked up at the numbered stands around the field prior to post hunt inspection.

The David D. Willoughby Memorial Dove Shoot is not a pay hunt as you may have discerned in this reading. It is by invitation only and only to those who wish to help us in providing a “real sporting event” for children and teenagers. Some are healthy, most are not. It is our goal to give handicapped and terminally ill children a chance to move from the “I can’t “to the “I can” mindset. Funds that are contributed go to the charitable organizations that sponsor such children. This is not a money making effort for us but a fund raising for such noble endeavors that gives disadvantaged kids a chance to hunt with the rest of us and have every need fulfilled when they arrive.

I am pleased to say that we raised $5000 this past Saturday for the sponsored children of Georgia Special Sportsmen. It pleases our heart so much that we can make this contribution to such a worthy cause. Our efforts only go to provide a venue for future hunts that they may or may not have the chance to enjoy. We appreciate the support and sponsorship of our entire local “business friends” in this endeavor. A “thank you” is not adequate for our supporters but we appreciate wholeheartedly everything that each has done for our children on the hunts. Our praise goes to God for the support that we have.

JD Shumpert