Potterfield Donation Helps PF Create FOREVER Shooting Sports & Wildlife Conservation Fund
OutdoorHub 06.10.11
Saint Paul, Minn. – June 9, 2011 – Pheasants Forever has established a permanent endowment fund for shooting sports and conservation education thanks to a $400,000 donation from Larry and Brenda Potterfield, founders of MidwayUSA. The FOREVER Shooting Sports & Wildlife Conservation Fund will ensure perpetual funding for a conservation experience/career day for high school students at Pheasants Forever’s annual National Pheasant Fest & Quail Classic.
The new endowment will be used for the inaugural MidwayUSA Youth Wildlife Conservation Experience, which will be part of Pheasants Forever’s National Pheasant Fest & Quail Classic 2012, coming to Kansas City, February 17, 18 & 19, 2012. Thanks to the endowment, area high school students and teachers will learn about ecology, outdoor skills, service learning projects and careers in conservation. In conjunction with the educational workshops, students will have the opportunity to meet members of the U.S. National Shooting Team, and practice their shooting skills on state of the art training simulators.
“With thanks to Larry and Brenda Potterfield, we are excited to provide an educational opportunity for high school youth and let them meet great role models like the U.S. national shooters and our biologists,” says Rich Wissink, Pheasants Forever’s National Youth Programs Specialist, “It will be a field day they will remember and knowledge they can use.” National Pheasant Fest & Quail Classic, Pheasants Forever’s biggest event, draws more than 20,000 attendees annually, and is the nation’s premiere wildlife habitat conservation, upland game bird hunting (pheasant and quail) and bird dog event.
Earlier this year, Pheasants Forever received a $1.27 million pledge from Larry and Brenda Potterfield to launch its FOREVER Shooting Sports Program. That funding is helping Pheasants Forever achieve its goal of developing a sustainable, comprehensive shooting sports program with its chapters and partners.
Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever chapters hold more than 500 youth events annually. For more information about Pheasants Forever’s youth education programs, contact Rick Wissink at (715) 722-0286 / Email Rich.
Pheasants Forever, including its quail conservation division, Quail Forever, is the nation’s largest nonprofit organization dedicated to upland habitat conservation. Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever have more than 135,000 members and 700 local chapters across the United States and Canada. Chapters are empowered to determine how 100 percent of their locally raised conservation funds are spent, the only national conservation organization that operates through this truly grassroots structure.
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Pheasants Forever is dedicated to the conservation of pheasants, quail and other wildlife through habitat improvements, public awareness, education and land management policies and programs.
Contact:
Anthony Hauck (651) 209-4972
