Last year in December, Justin and I were privileged to be
the guests of a wonderful woman named LoraLee at her beautiful ranch in south
Texas. Along with us, there were other wounded veterans. We had never met any
of them before, but we were all connected thought Project Healing Waters. One
of the couples were Ferris and Laura. Ferris, like Justin, lost both legs below
the knee during a deployment. His neighbor growing up was Ed Nicholson, the
founder of Project Healing Waters. When Ferris was growing up, Ed tried many
times without success to get Ferris to try fly fishing. Ferris always told him
he preferred a spinner reel. After he was injured, Ed came to visit him at
Walter Reed and finally convinced him to take up fly fishing and join the fly
fishing program that he had started.
Several months ago, Ferris contacted Justin about
participating in an event he was planning to benefit Project Healing Waters and
the Pat Tillman Foundation. Since it involved shooting guns, raising money for
an organization that we love, and helping out a friend, he quickly agreed. We
watched the progress of how the event planning was coming along through Ferris
and Laura’s posts on Facebook. Even though we knew the basics of what the day
would entail, the day far exceeded our expectations (and Ferris and Laura’s
too).
The event had something for everyone. There were plenty
of activities for the kids, so Corey wasn’t bored except when I may him sit for
a bit to cool down (it was a really hot day). There was a bounce house and an inflatable
slide, pony rides, face painting, and corn hole. There was a man who was doing
wood carvings with a chainsaw. (He donated one to the silent auction and the
other four went to the veteran team that did the best in the clay shooting
competition.) They even had a demonstration by a Beretta trick shooter. The food was wonderful! They started out with a continental style
breakfast. Then there were snacks of funnel cakes, cotton candy, popcorn, and
my favorite for the hot day – snow cones! For lunch, they had BBQ catered, and
seriously, it was the best BBQ I’ve had this far north. I’ve been looking for a
good BBQ place with no luck until today.
For the clay shooting competition, Justin was on a
veteran team sponsored by LoraLee. It was so nice to see her and her best
friend, Kathy, again and catch up. Justin’s team didn’t win, but he still had a
great time – and I think everyone who attended today did too. I didn’t get to
watch Justin shoot because Corey and I were busy with the inflatable slide (and
Corey’s sensitive ears didn’t want to be so close to the loud shotguns).
They had various raffles and items up for silent auction.
One of the raffle items (that Justin was disappointed that he didn’t win) was a
custom made gun that was made by another friend that we met in Texas. We ended
up winning a beautiful drawing that was drawn by yet another friend we met in
Texas on that trip. (We met some very talented people on that trip! Other
friend also is an artist, but sadly there weren’t any of her paintings up for
auction or we would have bid on it too.)
Ferris and Laura closed out the event by giving out the
awards and giving the non-profits the funds that were raised (or at least the
ceremonial extra-large checks for now). Today’s event raised approximately
$70,000, so $35,000 for each organization! A big thank you to Ferris, Laura,
and all their volunteers for everything they did to make today’s event a huge
success (at least that’s my opinion of it)! Everyone seemed to have a great
time, and the money raised will go a long way to help veterans. I don’t know
much about Tillman, but I know first-hand how much good Project Healing Waters
is doing all over the country to help wounded veterans.
For more information on Project Healing Waters: http://www.projecthealingwaters.org/
For more information on the Pat Tillman Foundation: http://pattillmanfoundation.org/
For more on our Texas trip: http://bethb09.blogspot.com/2013/12/our-trip-to-texas.html
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