Team Huntress more than just fun

I have been really encouraged and entertained lately by the blogs that have been posted about the Team Huntress event held June 12-14 at Pheasant Phun. Although I did not get to attend this grand event, I still have been greatly impacted by it. The event was about more than fun, it was about empowering women on their path toward outdoor success.

Some of you know I edit an online hunting show called Team Weekend Dreams, and our host, Frank Ellis, took part of his family vacation to go and film part of the event in hopes to make it the focus of a future show. Well, this decision didn’t make his family very happy, in fact his wife Holly was skeptical, but understood that Frank feels females in the outdoors is vital to the future and would make a great show to inform females of what is available to them so she agreed to go.

Upon arrival, the group received a greeting with open arms, and a process had begun. Over the next few hours Dave, Jane and the rest of the group started chipping away at Holly and the skepticism was fading quickly. Through spending time with their kids and including the entire group in the festivities it wasn’t long and Holly was enjoying being there, not to mention the fabulous time had by their kids. Every time I spoke with Frank while they were there, and let me tell you there were many times, all he could talk about was the great time they were having. But most of all was the transition that Holly and their daughter had made. Before going Holly wasn't the biggest outdoor fan. Now, Holly and their daughter can’t wait until it is time for the event to be held in 2010 in Missouri.

Frank told me his most memorable moment was on the way there his daughter Kailey (12) was upset that she had to give up part of her vacation for a boring seminar as she said. Then only to find her eyes filled with tears and upset because they had to leave and couldn’t stay for the entire event. His 8 year old son Lucas spent the rest of the vacation talking about his new buddy Hawk who gave the archery instructions and his buddy Dave who he spent a lot of time with and got to help chauffer the ladies in Big Green.

After hearing about the events and reading the blogs, I told my wife, Teresa, about it and had her read a couple of the blogs, and now she is interested in attending a Team Huntress Event and wants to start going to the woods with me more often. I hope her new found interests in the outdoors grows and when hunting season comes I can have her in the stand with me, running camera of course, hehe. Until then, I will continue to get her in the woods and continue to relay the blogs and tweets to keep her interests up.

Thank you to everyone at Team Huntress and the event staff for empowering three women that I know of to find and strengthen their love for the outdoors. May you continue to infect people with the bug we all have come to love!