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yards of me. I brought the bow up, drew it back and lined up the sites just as the back saw me I released the arrow and
the deer jumped into the air and ran off. I sat there and began to cry, thinking I had missed or worse, wounded the deer.
After about twenty minutes, I looked up and there stood Sergeant Savage; he said “com on legs go track down your
deer.” We went to the spot where the deer was standing when I shot and I saw blood on the ground and my excitement
was almost unbearable. As we walked, he showed me how to follow a blood trail and we tracked down the deer I shot
only a short time before. I could see drops of blood on the ground, some larger than others and then after no more than
ten minutes we found my buck, I had made a perfect kill shot. As I knelt over my first deer, it all came together for me;
then I heard Dillan from behind me say, “ well now the work starts”; I had been so engrossed in the deer and finding my
arrow, that I didn’t realize he had walked up behind me.
That night we took the back straps and prepared them for my family. I have never enjoyed eating something as much as
I did that deer that I killed, cleaned and cooked myself. Sergeant Savage is my high school teacher and hunter education
instructor, but now he is more than that, he is a person who took the time to share a world with me that I never knew
existed. This is not a world filled with a lot of people who just want to kill animals; this is a world of family and
friendship, which is handed down generation to generation. I have learned how important it is, that this heritage be
passed down, not only from generation to generation, but from friend to friend and even from stranger to stranger. If
not for the archery program at my school, I would have never experienced all of this. I will never forget Sergeant Savage
or his sons Dillan and Kenneth, who will forever live in my memories through the stories they shared with me during the
hunt.
2011 Essay Contest - A Joint Program of ODWC and OKSCI for the Youth of Oklahoma
According to Colin Berg, education supervisor for the Wildlife Department, the essay contest is an ideal way for
youth to show their love for the outdoors and, in the process, possibly win a vacation in the great outdoors. To
participate, students must be 11-17 years of age and currently enrolled in any Oklahoma school or home school.
Students also must use the theme of “Hunting: Sharing the Heritage” or “Archery: What I like about Archery in the
Schools and Bowhunting” or the concept of the theme to develop a descriptive essay or short story. Winners of the
previous year’s contest are not eligible. Applicants must have successfully completed an Oklahoma Hunter Education
course by the entry deadline, which is Nov. 18, 2011. There are two age categories — 11-14 and 15-17.
Winners in the 15-17 age category (one boy and one girl) will receive a guided antelope hunt in New Mexico,
and winners in the 11-14 age category are competing for a scholarship within the Apprentice Hunter Program at the
YO Ranch in Mountain Home, Texas. Safari Club International’s Apprentice Hunter Program is a unique, hands-on
course designed for girls and boys aged 11-14. The program covers topics such as the history of hunting, the ethical
basis of modern sport hunting, wildlife management, field identification, tracking and interpreting sign, game cooking
and the SCI Sportsmen Against Hunger Program. There are three sessions — each one week long — during the
summer of 2012.
The four statewide winners and their legal guardians will be invited to Oklahoma City to attend an awards
ceremony in March. In addition, the top 25 essay entrants will receive a one-year youth membership to Safari Club
International. The Oklahoma State Chapter will reimburse trip travel expenses to New Mexico and Texas up to $500
per essay contest winner. The winning student essays will be published in the OSCSCI newsletter, “Safari Trails.”
Publication qualifies the winning entries for the Outdoor Writers Association of America Youth Writing Contest.
Several past national winners have come from Oklahoma.