A Dream Comes True
By John Fox 

    In October 2006 my daughter got married and my cousin, Mary Lynn and her husband Terry came for the wedding from Oregon.  The morning after the wedding we were eating breakfast together and Mary Lynn mentioned she, her husband, Terry and brother, Steve were going to Canada hunting.  Her brother is deaf and is losing his sight and has wanted to shoot an elk before he lost all his sight.  She asked if I would be interested in going and I said I would.  She asked if my wife would be able to go to help me out, since I am in a wheelchair due to MS.  I told her my wife won’t be able to go along but I had a friend that might be able to.  On the way home from breakfast, we were discussing who to ask to go when I thought of my 2 boys, Lewis and Jeff, and my new son-in-law, Tony White.  We would be set to go if they could go.

   On the 7^th of October 2007, the 4 of us flew out of Omaha, NE, for Saskatoon, Canada.  Upon arrival, the boys had to lift me into an SUV for the 2 ½ hour drive to the lodge at Love, Saskatchewan, Canada. When we got to the lodge, we met up with my cousins, shared a great meal, learned what time we would be going out in the morning, and then had a good visit before going to bed.

   The next morning we started our hunt around 7:30 AM.  That is when I discovered I could not pull my compound bow back.  I’d practiced all summer but was just having a terrible time pulling it back now.  We went out for our morning hunt and didn’t have any luck where I was hunting.  The boys got some shots at wild boars, having no luck harvesting any but lost some arrows.

   The next day we were hunting fallow deer, having better luck, but I was still having trouble pulling my bow back.  The guide would have to help me pull which made it hard to aim.  That’s when one of the other guides told me about a locking device and about the PCBA. By looking at the PCBA website (www.pcba-inc.org) I decided I wanted to join.  I did get a draw loc from DeSoto Archery in DeSoto, IA where I purchase my bows.  We put it on my bow when I was there at Christmas.  Now I get to learn how shoot again as soon as the weather gets better.

     As for our hunting trip in Canada, 2 of the boys shot fallow deer and one got a Russian boar. I got nothing but memories of a trip that would not have been possible without the 3 boys going to help me out.  It was always my dream to take them hunting and I finally made it happen.

     I want to thank Lewis, Jeff and Tony for putting up with me for 5 days. This is the reason I am getting them able-bodied memberships to the PCBA so we can do this again someday.

     I’d never heard of the PCBA until running across your website, but am very proud to be a member now.  You are doing great things.