by Peter Churchbourne, Managing Director, NRA Hunters’ Leadership Forum - Thursday, October 17, 2024
The passion of hunters really starts to show this time of year. It’s hard to contemplate that our hunting heritage might ever be in jeopardy as we are getting excited to gear up to plan trips, set up blinds and imagine that nice buck walking into our line of sight. It is easy to get complacent that our opportunities to hunt will never change, but the reality of the world’s politics and the fact that many current hunters are aging out of our sport tells us we all need to stay vigilant for the long term. The First Hunt Foundation (FHF), one of the nation’s largest new-hunter mentoring organizations, and the NRA, which developed the nation’s first hunter education course, have teamed up to do just that. The FHF and the NRA are looking to the future and have joined forces by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) where they agree to work together to save our hunting heritage.
FHF believes that having mentored hunting experiences can create a permanent desire for youth and other interested persons to start hunting as a part of their culture. FHF’s desire is to establish mentors and chapters throughout every state in the United States and eventually every province in Canada. It believes that the NRA can help them recruit mentors and raise awareness much further and faster than FHF could do on its own. The NRA believes that recruiting new hunters will help save the sport of hunting and fits into its organizational goals that ensure hunting will continue to be part of the culture in America and other countries for generations to come. The NRA believes FHF’s programs are the best hope for saving hunting and desires to work with FHF to that means.
FHF President Rick Brazell says, “We have worked closely with the NRA Hunters’ Leadership Forum in the past and together we developed the nation’s first online mentor training course, The ABCs of Outdoor Mentoring, and it also helped us establish the Hunting Heritage Endowment managed by the Midway USA Foundation. It just made sense to have a more formal relationship showing we are all in this together. I’m excited to see where this might take us.”
In recognizing how the United States is losing hunters at an alarming pace, the most effective organization that is producing new hunters year after year is the First Hunt Foundation. It is doing it better, more efficiently and in larger numbers than anyone else in the country. For NRA Hunters’ Leadership Forum recruitment, retention and reactivation (R3) programs, there is no better investment than the First Hunt Foundation.
When two powerful organizations work together, it gives us hope our hunting heritage will stand the test of time. FHF and the NRA know we cannot do it alone and applaud all those engaged in the R3 effort. More gets done when everyone works together.
To learn more about the First Hunt Foundation or help it with its mission, click here.