Story by Jennifer Marsh/American Red Cross
Colorado shooting enthusiasts came together August 8 at the Peaceful Valley Scout Camp in Elbert, Colorado, to shoot clay pigeons out of the sky, enjoy the beautiful weather and raise money for the American Red Cross Service to Armed Forces Program.
This inaugural Sporting Clays Invitational was a great success and came together due to the hard work of Tom Gonzalez, Executive Director of the American Red Cross of Southeastern Colorado. Approximately 100 people, including active duty Special Forces from Fort Carson and area first responders came out to try their luck at shooting clays. Some participated in warm-up games such as Flurry, 5-Stand and Crazy Quail.
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| Cliff Holtz, President of Humanitarian Services at the American Red Cross stands with event coordinator Allyssa Taves and Executive Director Tom Gonzales at the Shooting Clays Invitational. Photo by Richard Firth/American Red Cross |
Gen. Gene Renuart (Ret.) set the stage for the event, stating, “This is an excellent opportunity because we are having fun and raising money for the Service to Armed Forces program of the American Red Cross. The Red Cross was born on a battlefield and continues that tradition of service to the military through providing emergency communication services and support for active duty service members, families and veterans.”
Shooting clays is an old sport. In Britain, expert shooting of pheasant and grouse was a marker of one’s social breeding, as so much of the countryside where the birds were found was under the ownership of the village estate, and no one could legally hunt the birds without permission. Artificial targets meant that the sport could be opened up to a larger population.
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| The winning team takes aim at the Sporting Clays Invitational Photo by Joan Green/American Red Cross |
Among shooting sports, sporting clays is unique in that there are generally between 10-15 different stations each shooter must complete, each with a different challenge. The scores for each station are tallied in order to find the winner, much like golf. The Shooting Clays Invitational featured 15 different stations and squads were evaluated in six different classes. Congratulations to all participants.
Special thanks to Jim ‘N Nicks BBQ and Phantom Canyon Brewery for the refreshments. Thank you also to all our sponsors, especially The El Pomar Foundation, The Anshutz Foundation, The Anshutz Corporation and Arrow Electronics.
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| Overall winning team Mark Sterile, Jeff Bishop, John Adams and Tim Travis hold their awards at the Sporting Clays Invitational. Photo by Richard Firth/American Red Cross |
To see more photos of the Sporting Clays Invitational visit our Flickr album.