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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.