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Faith at Full Draw and The NWTF Ohio Wheelin Sportsman Event

rgecko23

*Supporting Member*
7,466
0
Massillon, Ohio
Guys,

We had an amazing time this weekend. Ray and Randy are really a part of an amazing thing. We felt blessed to be able to be a part of it all. I want to personally thank Ray and Randy for everything!

You guys will be in for a treat when the video of Mike McCloskys turkey hunt is done. It was an awesome hunt. He nailed a huge bird! Shot the lips right off that sucker LOL!

Randy, you opened up your home to us for the weekend and we couldnt be more appreciative. Your wife and kids are great. Running back and forth to your house for us and all the food and hospitality was amazing. Randy and Hunter both can throw down on some Walleye boys!

Ray, you helped us out so much and thank you for all the meat you gave me. I got some good stuff for grillin this summer. I really enjoyed talking to you one and one and getting to know more about you, that really meant alot to me. You're a great guy and I gained a really good friend this weekend.

We met alot of great guys this weekend. All the guides and the people involved in making this event a success were great. To see everyone put all their personal lives and needs aside to help these people turkey hunt was amazing. Even though everyone did not shoot a turkey, it was a sucess all around.

If any of you guys ever get the chance to be a part of this event, jump on it. You will really feel blessed and really cherish the things that you take for granted in your every day life. This event really opened my eyes and made me cherish my time in the woods with what god has created all that much more.

Thank You guys from the bottom of my heart, and may god bless the both of you for what you do. Your hard work and time really paid off.
 

Jackalope

Dignitary Member
Staff member
38,841
260
Awesome guys.. Sounds like it went great. Good thing yall did for those people. :)
 

hickslawns

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
39,720
248
Ohio
I checked out your facebook updates. You guys ROCK! That is an awesome thing you are doing. Hats off to all involved!
 

swantucky

The Crew
1,594
122
Swanton, Ohio
Thanks everybody!! It was great hosting the FAFD draw guys, what a great bunch. It was great to meet and have some laughs with everyone!

I have plenty more to say when I have more time. It is just amazing how far this event has come in just 5 years. We have already started planning for next year, we want to keep making it better and better every year.

I am not sure what all the FAFD guys have on tape but the few minutes of video that I saw is out of this world!! I cannot even imagine how great the finished product will be!
 

bowhunter1023

Owner/Operator
Staff member
48,879
274
Appalachia
Great work fellas. Look forward to the videos!

And Randy, I'm sorry I forgot to warn you about Wayne. You should see what he was doing to Greg last time he was down!!! LOL!!!
 

rgecko23

*Supporting Member*
7,466
0
Massillon, Ohio
Great work fellas. Look forward to the videos!

And Randy, I'm sorry I forgot to warn you about Wayne. You should see what he was doing to Greg last time he was down!!! LOL!!!


Sshhhhhh.....that was supposed to be private....great, now people are going to think gregs weird...lol
 

deerjunkie

Junior Member
959
0
Canton, Ohio
Wayne summed it up pretty good. I didn't really know what to expect going into this event. I mean I had a good idea but after leaving Sunday afternoon it all really just hit me how huge this is. I consider my self a pretty manly man, but from the beginning Friday night at the banquet it started to hit me...the watery eyes. Did good all weekend until it was time to leave and we were saying our good byes in the parking lot of the airport hanger. In those brief moments I quickly replayed all the work the Wheelin Sportsman put into it, I quickly replayed how proud I was of our FAFD team and I quickly replayed how inspirational those wheel chair bond paralyzed hunters were to us. When I gave my hunter that man hug good bye and I turned around to walk to my truck I made eye contact with Ray, he waved in such a manner to say "Thanks guys...we did it!" It literally felt like my eyes were going to explode out of my head. I could of let loose like a child who needed his momma. We went there in our hearts to be a blessing to those less fortunate...well, let me tell you this...they were truly a blessing to us!

Ray and Randy...you guys ROCK! You can see how much this means to them and that is infectous...you can't help but get fired up. We had an absolute blast hanging out at Randys house and having so many laughs. I truly cant express in words what this past weekend was like being part of it...hopefully we can relay that message in the video so everyone can get a true appreciation.

Well onto the pics....here is four of us (me, larry, wayne and seth) driving there. Denny met us at the dinner that night.




Here we all are at the dinner.




We used Randys (Swantucky) van to haul Denny, our hunter Mike and myself to our spot. Ya...it was a little crowed...lol




Our hunter Mike and myself. Mike, two years ago was a 6'2" 270lb muscle freak. Then one night a cop who had an itchy trigger finger, wrongfully shot him in the spine at 15ft with a .40cal. He is paralyzed from the waist down.




The footage I got a this bird coming in is....well, is some of the best turkey on a decoy footage I have ever seen.





One of the other hunters watching our kill footage I down loaded to the MAC real quick.




Denny, Mike and I.




The entire FAFD team.

 

Buckmaster

Senior Member
14,362
191
Portage
It's always a nice gesture of paying it back....or paying it forward. It's always a great feeling. Congratulations to all parties in attendance. Way to go boys.
 

Ray

Junior Member
Thanks to all who have followed this story unfold. I know I posted it here and Dale & Wayne are right, you just can't get the feel for what it is all about until you experience it. When I began volunteering for the event five years ago, I did it because I though it was the right things to do.... yes it was. But, now it is so much a part of me, I can't help but get more and more excited for the event each year. Each year I take something more from the event and apply it to my life and try to improve based on the stories that I have taken in from the participant who have become disabled. It usually takes a couple of days to sink in, largely due to sleep deprivation throughout the weekend, but this year was almost over whelming.

The guys at Faith at Full Draw are some of the most remarkable people that I have met and become friends with. I felt like we were old friends while sitting around chatting, never missing a beat, understanding eachother extremely well. It was a great honor to have them at the event and we hope that you will want to volunteer in the same capacity in the future.

The footage as Randy and others mentioned is absolutely OFF THE HOOK! You can see in the one image above the turkey all fanned out and coming in to the decoy ..... HE GETS CLOSER, A LOT CLOSER! It is awesome and Dale and Denny put Mike in a position to slam that bird with some persistence in an afternoon scouting mission. :)

Wayne, it was awesome to chat one on one like we did and I feel that we have a lot in common .... Thanks so much for coming to our event it means a lot to me, randy and our hunters!

To summarize, here is a video clip of our guest speaker and an article that is being published soon in the Toledo Blade that I wrote about the weekend. In the next post ....
 

Ray

Junior Member
Here is the link to the video about Brock Mealer our guest speaker that is mentioned in the article. [video=youtube;18PB4DKHVDA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18PB4DKHVDA[/video]