Pennsylvania Taxidermist Association

It was great to see everyone again at the convention. It's always a time filled with great anticipation. Over the last few years, the Camp Compass partnership with the PTA has become solid. The commitment that the members of the PTA have shown our children are to be commended. The business of taking underserved children hunting can be a bumpy road but we take great pride and satisfaction knowing we are coming "home" when we visit Altoona. I hope everyone liked the show Mossy Oak did on our children that included the PTA. The entire country was made aware of your commitment to the future of hunting.
     That brings us to the future of Camp Compass Academy; it sometimes looks bright and sometimes bleak. We have been most impressed with the number of taxidermists that have offered to do work for our children. Please contact Mike Leighton if you'd like to sign up to do a mount. We are also looking for quality hunting and fishing opportunities for our children so if you have a special spot or know someone in the hunting business that could donate a trip please search it out and contact us. We've got more kids that want to hunt than we know what to do with and maybe your contacts could help our mission move forward.
     We currently are at about a three-year waiting list for students to get into the hunting portion of the program and have had to rent buses to get all of our younger kids to shooting practices in the summer months. To those of you that supported our programs by becoming a member after my speech; THANKS a bunch. The membership dues go towards keeping the academy open.
     If you'd like to support our children by becoming a member you can via our website at www.campcompass.org or www.campcompassacademy.com. The amount of money we need to raise to keep our children off the streets and in the woods needs to be increased. Getting kids involved in hunting is not the problem we face; it's raising the money to do it.