A year and a lot of work, commitment by trap members made the dream reality

It all started with a few comments about not being able to shoot doubles or handicap on open night because it was too busy. No time for Annie Oaklie’s, or back your buddy fun shooting. And “if only we had a third trap, we would be able to shoot more.”

Five young shooters on the Minnewaska High School trap team decided that they could make something happen.  Every week they would come to trap and the coaches would talk about how important it is to give back, and that you don’t stand with your hand out, you work for what you want.  And they did just that. Mason Reichmann , Dylan VanZee, John Jenson, Levi Schultz, and Cole Kittelson were on a mission. 

 An opportunity arose for them to “adopt a trap”  at the ATA Minnesota State shoot in July of 2022. This is held in Alexandria every year the week of the 4th of July. Mason heard about this opportunity and gathered the group.  Unbeknownst to any of the coaches, these boys signed up to adopt 2 traps, which turned into 3 by the end of the week.  To adopt a trap, they had to be ready to go by 8 am each morning for 6 days.  Some days they worked until well past supper and nearer to 9 pm.   They had to load the trap houses and score for the hundreds of shooters competing each day in up to 3 different disciplines of shooting.   

Their “home” for the week was two fish houses brought up by their parents. They parked right behind the traps they adopted.  They cooked for themselves and there is some rumor that the power to the campground went out when Mason tried to air fry chicken nuggets.  They scheduled themselves so that they would rotate and could take breaks during the day.  Some days the breaks included actually competing, and of course eating ice cream and playing cornhole. Levi’s favorite memory was shooting 194×200 in the singles championship, and lots of memories he would not share with me.  Dylan said he got to see more clays fly than he ever imagined and the campground shenanigans made the hard work worth it.  John made breakfast most mornings but eventually got fired for burning the eggs they say.  Cole said the chicken nugget incident was something he will always remember. 

By the end of the week, they were tired but had accomplished so much.  Those boys received a check for over $5,200 and gave it right to the team to put towards a new trap field. They did not keep one penny for themselves.  Not one penny.

Once the Glenwood Gun Club received the money, it was a scramble to figure out how this would work.  The gun club leases land from the City of Glenwood.  So there were many conversations between coach John Stone and City Administrator  David Iverson to determine the best location for the new field and reworking the lease.  Once all of that was in place, it was time to find someone to move some dirt.  LOTS of dirt.  You see, the new field was to be carved out of a big  hillside that was being farmed.  So, after fall crops were done, club manager John Stone roughly marked the location.  But finding someone with time to actually come and prepare the site was a bigger task than expected. Most places could not help us until spring, and some didn’t even call us back.  We finally found                                      someone that had time  and he came on the first snow of the year to move dirt.  

It was becoming obvious that nothing could happen now until spring.  But knowing the site prep was done allowed us to get everything else lined up that needed to be done.  Concrete work, electrical work, speaker system, target thrower, scoring bench, rock picking and seeding.  The list went on and on.  

And then came the snow. And more snow. And more snow.  It really looked like spring would never arrive!  But once the frost was out, the cement work started, and slowly but surely, things started coming together. Just last week the electritian had time to come and get power to the bunker. 

  The club was able to get grant money from both the NRA and the DNR to help with the remaining costs.   Duininck Concrete heard about the project and donated the concrete and blocks for the bunker and trap field. It took a little over a year from idea to completion although there is still a little landscaping to do and setting the trap machine in. But it won’t be long and those 5 young men will be the first squad to stand on that 16 yard line.

With hard work and diligence, and a big idea from some young boys, the field of dreams is now a reality.

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