Leica Honors Youth Hunters at B&C Generation Next Awards
OutdoorHub 08.21.13
Leica Sport Optics was extremely proud to sponsor and participate in Boone and Crockett’s Generation Next Awards, which were held during the Boone and Crockett Club 28th Big Game Awards, July 17-20 in Reno, Nev., at the Silver Legacy Hotel. The awards honored youth who recently took a trophy in Boone and Crockett records.
The Generation Next Awards, which had 22 kids on-hand to receive their trophies, proved to be one of the event’s most popular and inspirational highlights.
“We literally had tears in the room,” Boone and Crockett President Bill Demmer, says. “Parents were proud, of course, but everyone was moved by the words and sentiments and foresight of these kids. It’s obvious to all who attended that we’re leaving conservation in very good hands.”
A triennial event, the youth awards has been recently renamed the Jack S. Parker Generation Next in honor of former Club president Jack Steele Parker.
“The power of that event is a fitting way to honor the memory and name of one of our most devoted, wise and inspirational leaders,” Demmer says.
The Boone & Crockett Big Game Awards is one of North America’s longest-running celebrations of big-game conservation and management. This year’s event featured a public exhibition of World’s Records, Top 5 trophies and records-book specimens taken by hunters age 16 and under during the past three years.
“We were thrilled to recognize these young hunters for their accomplishments,” Terry Moore, vice president of Sport Optics for Leica, says. “Youth hunters play an invaluable role in the future of the sport and in big-game conservation and management efforts, and we stand behind the Boone and Crockett Club’s efforts to encourage youth to pursue their passion for the out of doors.”
Keith Balfourd, Boone and Crockett Club’s director of marketing, says 160 kids, 16-years-old and younger, have been added to the books for B&C big-game animals in the last three years.
“Each of these kids received an invitation to come to Reno and display their trophy and to take part in the Generation Next Awards banquet,” Balfourd says. “Each youth hunter got to come up on stage and be presented with a certificate and Generation Next hat while the master of ceremonies talked about his or her trophy. This event is a big deal for these young hunters and their families. Less than one half of one percent of big game hunters can say they have a Boone and Crockett animal in the record book. To be recognized in this way is even that much more special.”
Boone and Crockett began hosting public exhibitions of big game trophies in 1977.
For more info on the Boone and Crockett Club 28th Big Game Awards, visit www.biggameawards.com.
