by Karen Mehall Phillips, Director of Communications, NRA HLF - Monday, April 25, 2022
Who wants to have dinner with Don Jr. and Eric Trump at the 151st NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits in Houston next month? Maybe the better question is: Who wouldn’t want to have dinner with the Trump brothers? Fortunately for us hunters, the annual NRA Hunters’ Leadership Forum (HLF) Dinner and Auction on the eve of the NRA show on May 26 at Houston’s Rice Hotel Crystal Ballroom is our opportunity.
Be part of the synergy as the NRA HLF welcomes Eric to the stage as the evening’s keynote speaker and then recognizes Don Jr. as the winner of its 2022 NRA Distinguished Hunters Leadership Award. While these avid outdoorsmen do not need much of an introduction in hunting, shooting and Second Amendment circles—becoming even better known in helping their father, Donald J. Trump, get elected the 45th President of the United States—together they serve as executive vice presidents of the family global real estate empire, the Trump Organization. Their family ties are the ties that bind as they supervise entities from fine residential properties and luxury hotels to iconic golf courses, office and retail locations, wineries, entertainment venues and brokerage services.
While many of us know of Eric’s passion for hunting and long-range shooting, in overseeing management and operations of the family business, the avid golfer also enjoys spearheading the rapid growth of Trump Golf, bringing the portfolio from three properties in 2006 to 19 today. Eric also pursues independent business opportunities, including launching the award-winning Trump Winery in Charlottesville, Va., the largest winery on the East Coast. Wine aficionados will be pleased to know dinner will be paired with Trump Winery selections. One sip of the wine makes it clear why Wine Enthusiast magazine awarded Eric its prestigious “Rising Star of the Year” Award in 2013.
No NRA HLF dinner is complete without recognizing a prominent hunter in our midst with the NRA Distinguished Hunters Leadership Award for exceptional leadership in the hunting and wildlife conservation arena while epitomizing the core values of the hunter. Time and again, it is internationally known innovator, business leader and NRA HLF member Don Trump Jr. who is out front and who has our backs. While overseeing the expansion of the Trump Organization, he is just as busy dedicating his time and personal resources to promoting the freedom to hunt and making sure his own children are exposed to the outdoor life. A frequent speaker at national hunting and political conventions from the NRA to the SCI show and beyond, he stands up not just for hunting but its critical role in securing wildlife’s future, becoming a New York Times best-selling author and launching Field Ethos along the way. Notably, he co-founded Field Ethos to showcase hunting, fishing and shooting-related content across print, online, film and social media platforms and, more recently, through timely podcasts created to tell the hunter’s story and the truth about legal, regulated hunting. The NRA HLF is proud to acknowledge his excellence on the communication, education, philanthropy, political advocacy, and wildlife conservation fronts.
In noting the significance of this NRA event, the NRA HLF dinner invitation reads: “Please join us as we celebrate 151 years of promoting hunter safety and defending hunting as a shooting sport and a viable and necessary method of fostering the growth, conservation and wise use of our renewable wildlife resources.” Translation: The NRA is celebrating its 151st anniversary—a major milestone in itself—while working to protect the future of hunting and wildlife conservation. Not only is it the NRA that launched the nation’s first-ever hunter education course in 1949 in conjunction with the state of New York and provides the education and training programs to keep hunters safe afield, but the NRA Institute for Legislative Action is in the trenches fighting to protect legal, regulated hunting for future generations. What other group has done this for hunters, shooters and gun owners across America for more than one and a half centuries?
Sponsored by Worldwide Trophy Adventures and Woods & Waters Taxidermy, the HLF event at the Rice Hotel Crystal Ballroom in Houston runs from 6-9 p.m. and includes a reception from 6-7 p.m. followed by the dinner. The cost is $250 per ticket for NRA HLF President’s Founders Club and President’s Club members or $2,200 for a table of eight with preferred seating. General admission is $350 or $3,200 for a table of eight with preferred seating. To RSVP and purchase tickets, email [email protected] or call 703-267-1126.
With the dynamic Trump brothers in the room, tickets won’t last long. Order yours today and join us for this annual celebration of hunters and hunting. As NRA HLF chair Ward “Trig” French always says, “It’s the strength of our convictions that brings us to the dinner each year. We’re crusaders not just for wildlife but for our way of life.”