Fundraising to make an impact: YC Warrior Ranch hosts hog hunt

Veterans, community members and other visitors came together at the Young County Warrior Ranch during the Operation Gunsmoke Helicopter Hog Hunt event held last weekend. The event serves not just as a fundraiser for the ranch, but each year builds connections between veterans.

The Young County Warrior Ranch is a nonprofit organization that owns and operates a 20-acre ranch with a bunk house, stock tank, fellowship hall and other amenities which are available to veterans at no charge year-round. The helicopter hog hunt serves as the annual fundraiser for the organization to make sure the facility can remain a service for veterans and their families.

“It’s important because we exist solely to support our veterans. That’s our mission, that’s what we do,” Young County Warrior Ranch board president Dana Lindley said. “So our fundraiser allows us to provide a much-needed venue with our new partners in the Warrior Connection that this ranch is going to be used on a regular basis now, and to help provide services for the veterans and have a place for them to come to get guidance and counseling on some issues that they have going. It’s exactly what we wanted to do with the ranch at (its) inception, was to have this ranch work for our veterans on a daily basis. We’re not there yet, but we’re moving in that direction.”

The hog hunt event this year was hosted from March 17-20 at the ranch located on Turtle Hole Road. The event costs $1,000 per hunter and some of those were sponsored by donors. Donors can give $1,000, or another monetary value they can afford, for a veteran to participate in the hunt. To sponsor a hunter for future hunts, a check can be made out to the Young County Warrior Ranch and mailed to the Young County Warrior Ranch, 434 Oak St., 76450.

The fundraising event has grown tremendously from previous years, moving from just over 60 hunters in the last year to a record of over 200 hunters this year. During the event over 500 hogs were killed by shooters who participated. Board member Andrea Lowery said with the increase in numbers, additional landing zones and hunting areas were crucial.

“One thing that was really different, since our numbers were so much higher (and) there are three times as many people here this year as there were last year, so having the second landing zone made all the difference in the world, or we never would have been able to get everybody a turn. We wanted to make sure that everybody who paid to hunt at least saw hogs and got a shot, and most of them actually got to kill some hogs,” Lowery said. “We’re really appreciative of the landowners, both Daniel Holland and Zack Burkett, but also the partnership that all of these landowners up and down Turtle Hole formed so that they would sign the landowner agreements and let us hunt right here near the ranch. We never could have made sure that everybody who paid to be here got that kind of opportunity, unless we had the 33,000 acres under landowner agreement. So I wanted to be clear how much we appreciate those people.”

At the event were visitors from 38 states and three countries, with many veterans and active duty military members. Lowery said the event provides connections and fellowship for many veterans who may not even know they need to talk.

“I had one gentleman come through the food line the first morning and tell me that coming here last year changed his life. He said that he didn’t even know he even needed to talk to someone and once he got here and started building connections, he’s not only built new friendships and looked forward all year to coming back, but he took advantage of some services that he learned about here, and that it was absolutely life changing,” she said. “So many of the veterans who have participated have said that they want to come back and they want to come early next year and help and be volunteers. (...) so they don’t want to just come and hunt, but they feel like it’s such an important mission that they want to pitch in and help.”

For the full story, see the Wednesday, March 23 edition of The Graham Leader.