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Old 10-08-2024, 05:54 PM
treeroot treeroot is offline
 
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Default Highschool hunting trip--> Need donations

I am a teacher in Northern AB. One of the classes I teach is "WILDLIFE". Within this course, I teach the hunter education program where students can do their hunter ed exam to earn their license and credit.

This year, after a LOT of work, my school board has given me permission to take my entire class on hunting trips.

We have a few trips booked.
1) A survival camp where they make shelters and sleep in them for the night on crown land AND we get to walk trails for grouse/hare with a shotgun.

2) I am allowed to take them on a bus to cruise gravel roads for grouse with a shotgun. I know this isn't ideal hunting, but in my eyes, I just want to get as many kids out hunting as possible.

3) I am taking them to a farm field near my house where they will all sit in a stand of willows and hopefully catch a white tail coming out to feed or a buck coming out looking to breed. This will be a rifle hunt. I am going to take them a few times on this one.

The donations I need are binoculars. I need bino's for the deer hunting.

In order to have my entire class sitting in willows waiting for deer, I have to have them about 200-250 yards away from the bush the deer are coming out to feed from.. If the kids are too close, I know we will spook the deer before they even come out because of how many ppl I will have with me.

So they need to be able to see the deer while sitting 200-300 yards away from where they come out. I know if they can see the deer in the bino's they will be excited, satisfied and successful. IF they can't see the deer, it will be hard to keep their focus and they won't feel successful.


The bino's will have another use..
There is a very large chunk of bush behind my school where deer come out to feed. In November the deer actually come out in block 4 when I teach this class. So I am going to take the class to scout the bush where the deer come out, identify the deer trails/sign and then I will teach the class how to play the wind to find a spot and wait for the deer to come out. We will sit in this field a handful of times practicing being quiet, where to sit, how to rattle/grunt etc.. Bino's will play a huge role in their understanding of how to hunt deer and learn their habits.


If your still reading... This year me and another staff member are the only ones allowed to carry and shoot. If the program is successful this year, I am going to try to move towards students doing the shooting next year.

I made a post earlier about asking for bino donations, but my school didn't want me to say they were for taking a highschool class on actual hunting trips because they were a bit worried that they will get negative reactions from anti hunting groups. I was able to convince them that they were very unlucky to get such a reaction from a hunting forum.

If you can donate bino's please pm..

I have emailed several optics companies directly about donations and discounts and the only company that has got back to me has been Leupold. They are willing to give me dealer pricing, but its still much more than we can afford. We have to run 3 separate wildlife classes and 4 separate outdoor educaiton classes on $2,000 total
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  #2  
Old 10-08-2024, 10:23 PM
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DirtShooter DirtShooter is offline
 
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Good for you.

I remember going on hunters ed and fishers ed trips from grade 7 to 12. Even did my pal in grade 12 hunters ed.

Being that it's hunting season I don't have any binos I could lend but have you looked on Amazon?
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Old 10-08-2024, 10:31 PM
treeroot treeroot is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DirtShooter View Post
Good for you.

I remember going on hunters ed and fishers ed trips from grade 7 to 12. Even did my pal in grade 12 hunters ed.

Being that it's hunting season I don't have any binos I could lend but have you looked on Amazon?
I couldn't take bino's on load. To much risk with 26 kids handling them.

I have looked on Amazon yes. It's tough to gauge quality..

The other issue is money. As I mentioned, I have 5 "outdoor" classes with only 2,000$ to work with. 750$ is already spent on hunter education courses. In order for students to write the hunter ed exam, it costs money. Our school isn't allowed to charge a course fee. So its included in the budget. I bought some camping supplies, fishing supplies already. That $2,000 goes very quickly and I need to stretch it until June.

I'm hoping I can get enough bino's through donations. A couple people have already contacted me today through pm so I think I'll get what I need from AO.

In the past I have had a lot of donations from here for my outdoor programs I've run through schools in the last 15 years. I find people here are quite willing to donate to see kids get outside
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Old 10-08-2024, 11:09 PM
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brendan's dad brendan's dad is offline
 
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I don't have extra bino's, but if you post an email for e transfer I will send you a money donation. Very worth while cause and thank you for your dedication.
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Old 10-08-2024, 11:50 PM
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Dean2 Dean2 is online now
 
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I pmed the OP and asked for some details of who we are being asked to support. I was prepared to make a sizable donation, as in covering the cost of acquiring binos from the Leupold offer, to this cause and asked for information about exactly who and where I would be making the donation to. Was told they are unable/unwilling to share further details. My take, on that basis I have no idea who I am being asked to help out. I don't want to be donating significant cash to anyone who is unwilling to tell me who they are.

There may be some very legitimate reason for this secrecy but I have no way of judging that. Not many reasons I can think of that should be an issue. You guys decide for yourselves if you want to donate to some mysterious northern school with no more detail than that. Personally, I am not prepared to send money blind to a cause with so little detail.

Last edited by Dean2; 10-09-2024 at 12:15 AM.
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Old 10-09-2024, 12:09 AM
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Dewey Cox Dewey Cox is offline
 
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Thank you for the detective work Dean.
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  #7  
Old 10-09-2024, 12:24 AM
treeroot treeroot is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dean2 View Post
I pmed the OP and asked for some details of who we are being asked to support. I was prepared to make a sizable donation, as in covering the cost of acquiring binos from the Leupold offer, to this cause and asked for information about exactly who and where I would be making the donation to. Was told they are unable/unwilling to share further details. My take, on that basis I have no idea who I am being asked to help out. I don't want to be donating significant cash to anyone who is unwilling to tell me who they are.

There may be some very legitimate reason for this secrecy but I have no way of judging that. Not many reasons I can think of that should be an issue. One however is, if this program is intended to get more "Keepers of the Land" out hunting, then I have less than zero interest in facilitating more unregulated hunting. You guys decide for yourselves if you want to donate to some mysterious northern school with no more detail than that. Personally, I am not prepared to send money blind to a cause with so little detail.
Your jumping to conclusions sir.. I just replied to your 2nd pm.. I was marking math quizzes all night.

Your initial pm to me was sort of vague, so I replied asking you why you needed to know the info you were asking before I explained more. You didn't ask for the name of the school, location etc.. You asked for the background of students and why they don't have the opportunity outside of school to go hunting or observe wildlife. I just needed more clarification about why you wanted to know that info.. So I replied to you right away.. Then I started marking math exams and didn't have a chance to reply to your 2nd message until now.

Yes I did tell you I may not be able to share all the info you might want, and that's true.. Student confidentiality is a real thing I can be consequenced for if I break it.


Hopefully that clears things up. I don't have anything to hide and never intended to come across that way either.
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  #8  
Old 10-09-2024, 12:25 AM
treeroot treeroot is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by brendan's dad View Post
I don't have extra bino's, but if you post an email for e transfer I will send you a money donation. Very worth while cause and thank you for your dedication.
I don't know how to accept a donation of cash through EMT to be honest. I'll have to ask my admin tomorrow.
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  #9  
Old 10-09-2024, 12:34 AM
Zip Zip is offline
 
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This whole thing stinks a bit…been on here since 2017..407 posts, and he says he has asked numerous times…if somebody could show all that to me, then I might donate..right now this poster does not pass the smell test!
My opinion only, plus my gut feeling is saying stay away…
Good luck, but I’ll take a hard pass on your ask!
Zip
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  #10  
Old 11-14-2024, 11:05 PM
DRhunter DRhunter is offline
 
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Thanks for the update Tree, really appreciate that guys like you are able to take kids out and show them the outdoors that they may not get to experience otherwise. Looking forward to more updates, good luck!

DR


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