October 2022 marked the 20th anniversary of the Dream Hunt in Southern Illinois for children with disabilities and life-threatening illnesses.
Brigid O’Donoghue is the founder and CEO of the United Special Sportsman Alliance, the non-profit that puts on the weekend hunting trip near Harrisburg.
“For children with disabilities and life-threatening illnesses, it’s hard for them to find a place where they feel comfortable. Some of them are not even allowed to do sports in school,” O’Donoghue told The Center Square. “That’s the good thing about hunting and fishing. No matter what their disability is, we can get them out in the great outdoors.”
he said hunting builds confidence and gives children skills that make them proud.
“They come in a little anxious because most of them have not been hunting before. But they always go away with this wonderful feeling,” O’Donoghue said.
The annual Dream Hunt takes place at Camp Oxford near Harrisburg at the beginning of October during Youth Firearms Deer Season. Local hunters and landowners volunteer to be mentors.
The trip is free to children between the ages of 12 and 18. Their parents also get to come. The kids are screened through the organization and encouraged to get a little target practice in before they come to the Dream Hunt. The hunting mentors are parents and grandparents who have taught their own children to hunt.
Safety is the number one priority, O’Donoghue said.
Some of the children find out about the program by searching the internet and finding the website ChildsWish.org. The trips are free of charge.
More here.
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