By Bill Fortune
The third annual Sporting Clays Invitational was held June 10, 2017 at the Peaceful Valley Scout
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| Getting ready to start at 2017 Shooting Clays Invitational. Photo by David Hayden/American Red Cross |
Ranch near Elbert Colorado. Participants were greeted with a warm spring day as they converged on the scout ranch to begin the day of sport shooting.
This is third event of this type and, as in the past, was focused on raising money for the American Red Cross Services to the Armed Forces program. The event was coordinated by Tom Gonzalez, Executive Director for the Red Cross of Southeastern Colorado. “This is a very important event for us and it serves a very worthwhile program, supporting our military, their families and veterans,” Gonzalez said. “We have a large military component in our territory who will benefit from the funds raised.”
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| Shooting action at the Shooting Clays Invitation. Photo by RW Firth/American Red Cross |
Teams from all around Colorado joined in for the competition that began early on with warm up games like Flurry, 5-stand and Crazy Quail. That was followed by an opening presentation and a safety briefing. The fun stared officially following the safety briefing as the teams proceeded to their assigned target.
The participants were all shooting enthusiasts and there was a sense of excitement and comradery as the targets were pulled and the shooting began. There were several shooting stations along the course that afforded challenges for all levels of enthusiast.
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| The winning team from Eaton Steel Mfg in Pueblo Photo by David Hayden/American Red Cross |
This was the third annual Sporting Clays Invitational and since the event began more than $350,000 has been raised to support the work of the Services to Armed Forces program of the American Red Cross. To learn more about the Services to Armed Forces program, how it helps our service members, their families and veterans and how you can be part of this humanitarian movement, visit our web site at redcross.org.
If you would like to see more photos from the 2017 Sporting Clays Invitational visit our Flickr album.