SHAMROCK, Texas (KFDA) – Ruben meets with the Wheeler County 4-H Shooting Club and learns why they are thankful to donors and the impact they have on area kids.
Aaron Waters, 4-H coach, says they started the Red River Shootout in 2017.
“The range was built in 2016, started the first one in 2017, and we’ve had it every year since,” said Waters.
The club gets kids from Randall County, Deaf Smith County, and Wheeler County. Waters says it’s open to kids in Oklahoma, too.
“I think it does good to teach kids gun safety. It teaches them discipline, how to handle a firearm in camaraderie. I mean, these kids travel everywhere together,” said Waters.
Waters says a lot of kids don’t want to play football or basketball, so they come to the range and meet other kids there.
“They learn to shoot and it’s something to do for the rest of their life, shoot with their parents later on, just whoever,” said Waters.
Clifford Oldham and Joe McQuay started this behind the house with a single thrower. Waters says it’s been built up ever since.
He says they couldn’t have done it without the help of Wheeler County.
“The support of all of Wheeler County and the donations and the parents that help out here, and the other coaches: Dustin Poole, Garrett Farmer, Jimmy Nelson,” said Waters.
He says they have an average of 100 kids come to the shoot. On top of that, the club has fundraisers throughout the year.
“I’ve never seen such a generous community here. It takes a lot of money to do this, it takes a lot of time to do this, and we wouldn’t have this without the support of those people,” said Waters.
All of the support gives them a chance to compete, Waters says. They compete at a very high level every year.
“So without that funding — we have the skeet range, the trap range, the new sport, the new whiz bang throwers we just got this year — so without that, it just makes it so much harder if you don’t have that,” said Waters.
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