With a county population under 2000 people it takes a lot of cooperation and teamwork to support local clubs and causes. The same people donate countless hours to civic organizations like I've never seen. But that's the magic that makes their communities work and continue to be great places to experience the benefits of the small town rural lifestyle. It's easy to poke fun at these communities and the people but just read the national news headlines on any given day and it's not hard to understand why multiple generations choose to live and raise families in areas like this.
In April every year the local chapter of Pheasants Forever holds their annual fundraising banquet and auction. They generate funds for local habitat projects through memberships,sponsor donations and of course they're annual auction. I have never been a club type of person although I've been a member of various organizations over the year's. The main reasons for this being available time and an aversion to meetings! During my career I basically made a living attending meetings of one type or another with most of them being expensive colossal wastes of time for the organization for which I worked. These were mostly meant to be download sessions or intimidation exercises to shame the masses into improved performance! So in my retirement being all the wiser after decades in the business world meeting culture I simply cannot find it within myself to be an active member of any of these groups no matter what the cause is. I've been forever ruined for the type of service and compliance they require. But when I hear of a good controversy or argument made public at one of these civic meetings my ears perk up. You see I've learned decisions always arise out of conflict and right or wrong the agendas will never move along without them!
So the question for me was how do I support the organization my interests as an upland hunter are most closely aligned with? It's not only the organization itself but the actual people who donate countless hours of their time. Many of them happen to also be landowners who graciously allow me to hunt on their land. I've got enough gear to last a lifetime and then some so being an auction buyer doesn't make sense. In fact I dream of someday only having those possessions I can load into a pick up truck along with my bird dogs! I tried being an active member for a while but as I've related it's not my forte. The schedule of events and operations of a local club are pretty straight forward and don't change or require a lot of input. That's fine really. It also makes sense that landowner relations and habitat opportunities be handled and initiated by local people they already are familiar with. Maybe being involved on a different level might make sense but the simple facts are I'm just a pointing dog man at heart. My main objective is to have my boots on the ground walking behind my bird dogs! So then how do I show solidarity to the cause?
Well I hadn't lived here very long before word got around about my pie baking talents. With many many great cooks within this Russian German community that's something that they valued. One of the more creative members of the club then asked me if I'd consider making pies for the spring auction. Of course I said lets try it and we were off and running! Right up my alley. Creative,independent, and somewhat unconventional with no meetings required! It became over a period of the next few years a great novelty everyone looked forward to at this event attended by a few hundred people each year. People enjoyed just looking at the pies on display and would marvel at what they'd bring at auction. It was common for them to go for 25 to 75 dollars each. All for a great cause and an enjoyable way for me to show my support " For the birds along the way!"
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| "For The Birds Along The Way" |
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