Club Activities

Club members Steph Case, Shaun and Cierra Gorman started with spending the night with Lin Menninger at her home on Oneida Lake. There, the kids went over once more the plan of the day. The kids were meeting up with the Oswego County Federation of Sportsman at the Canastota exit at 6:15 a.m. to go to Albany to discuss bills that were in the assembly. Their job was to bring certain bills to the attention of senators, assemblymen and assemblywomen. Two in particular were A1936 the use of a 22 ca. firearm on a rifle range supervised by an adult by an 11 year old. The kids stated the importance of being able to handle a firearm when they took their hunter education course just before they went out on Jr. Hunter Weekend for turkey. As it stands now, you may take the hunting course at 11 years of age, but are not allowed to handle the firearms. Another bill discussed was A3014 . This bill would make it possible for hunting and fishing courses to be introduced into high school physical education courses.The kids handled their points well. The Senators were very impressed. Shaun Gorman was the spokesman for the group. The group was very prepared. They had a packet prepared for each appointment that contained literature about how The Great Outdoors Club began, continued at Pine Grove Middle School and is now with Advanced Strategies. They included their DVD about the club and articles about Lin Menninger and the NRA Blind Project. Cierra Gorman's essay Making a Conscious Effort to Make a Difference was also included in the packet. Pictures of the kids and Senator Libous will be on his web page along with Cierra's essay.

We would like to thank the Oswego Chapter for sponsoring the trip. It was a great experience for the kids.

The effort on the kids' part is to be commended. They had to get up at 4:00a.m. to get ready. Pictures will be posted soon. They all had a great time and learned a lot about our government.