The Children’s Outdoor Adventure Foundation was established in August 2008 to help fulfill the dreams of children with physical disabilities or life-threatening medical conditions. Some of the activities the non-profit foundation offers are camping, fishing, hunting, field trips, train rides, and visits to State and National Parks.

Foundation directors, Rob and Lise Holloway work tirelessly in an effort to raise funds and connect volunteers and families with these special children. In addition, the Holloway’s travel the country, selling raffle tickets for trophy hunts and show their Wildlife Display Center to various Schools and Community Centers. “We want to give children the chance to make a personal connection with wildlife,” said Rob Holloway. “We let the kids touch the various animal mounts and pelts, while showing them examples of the different tracks the animals make and educating them about conservation and the role sportsmen play in wildlife management.”

To volunteer, make a donation or purchase raffle tickets please contact Rob or Lisa Holloway, by phone at (505) 286-4444 or email livethedreamnow@yahoo.com or mail P.O. Box 141, Tijeras, NM 87059. You may also visit the Children’s Outdoor Adventure Foundation online at http://childrensoutdooradventurefoundation.com.

It began with a mother’s determination to make her son’s dream of going on a Canadian moose hunt come true. Tina Pattison’s son Matt was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease. Tina knew if she was going to give her son this gift she had little time left. She began by making a call to the Make-A-Wish Foundation only to learn that after intense harassment from animal-rights groups when it granted an Alaskan brown bear hunt, the foundation no longer granted those types of requests. Still Tina would not give up.

Call after call turned up little results until finally she contacted the Pittsburgh chapter of Safari Outfitters and received a glimmer of hope. In August of 1998 an outfitter, Clayton Grosso, based in Nordegg, Alberta, Canada, agreed to fulfill Matt’s dream. And the adventure was on.

The following year Matt lost his battle to cancer.

Determined to keep their son’s memory alive and help famlies avoid the difficulty they have faced in fulfilling a dream, Tina and Matt’s father Chester started the Hunt of a Lifetime Foundation in August 1999. The Pattison family knows first hand about the  pain and suffering not only of losing a loved one to a terrible disease but of being shut out of opportunities by organizations set up to make dreams come true for all but those who wish to hunt and fish.

Like all foundations of this type, your help and support is greatly needed. Financial support, volunteer work and making contact with hunting opportunities, no assistance is too small. 

For more information contact  Tina Pattison, President, 6297 Buffalo Road, Harborcreek, PA 16421 or visit www.huntofalifetime.org.  

Days-even minutes-can mean the difference between a terminally ill person fulfilling his or her dream or going out of this life still wishing.

It was January 2006 and the snow had begun to fall on the mesa. The boy wished to take a single shot on his father’s 12 gauge. It was his first shot on a big gun and you could see the lack of confidence in his eyes.

He paused to ask his dad if it was going to hurt. His father knew it would. “No boy. Just pull the trigger.” Two deep breaths and then Kabloom! The boy’s eyes were wide open with excitement. He took a breath and then yelled, “Yahoo! Did you see that dad? Did you see my shoulder pop out?”

The father asked, “What did you shoot?” Quick witted, the boy replied, “Your gun dad.” With that, the boy turned his attention to the future and asked, “Can we go turkey hunting now?”

As it is with many fathers and sons, this was Noah’s first time pulling the trigger on a big gun. The anticipation, uncertainty and thrill of trying something big, was almost more than he could bear. I am sure, like many boys, this will be a memory he will keep forever.

In an ever-changing society that is tearing the masculinity out of raising children, I find myself in a fight to emphasize the value of my son becoming a man. After all, the single biggest issue facing society today is the absence of the father in the home.

As mainstream society tries to change family values and child rearing, I ask, was not the most important teachings of Jesus based on his own relationship with the Father, which is God?

In John 5:19-20, Jesus defined the role of a father saying, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.”

Society, in the name of tolerance and political correctness, has managed to destroy that which God himself holds sacred.

My challenge to you is to push aside this modern movement and live up to God’s expectation of you as a father. Embrace your most important mission and teach your sons what you have learned. They will grow up to bring you honor.

Author Russ Chastain writes, “Nothing in hunting is more important than the future. No hunter should value his “serious” hunting higher than that done with a kid.”

The same can be said of life, fathers and sons. Next time you go hunting, remember your role, let your son take his first shot.

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 Lance Cherry, a native of New Mexico, has worked several years in the outdoor industry, with New Mexico Department of Game and Fish and the New Mexico State Parks Division. Lance is a founder of Crosshairs for Christ, a Christian ministry with a desire to connect and change lives by spreading Christ’s message to sportsmen and outdoor enthusiasts through activity-based fellowship. For more information contact Lance Cherry, lance@crosshairsforchrist.org.