I just returned from attending my second funeral in less than a week. One was gone at 37 but the other lived a full life of 76. I realize that life is so fleeting. This year our club lost 4 of our older members. We have 33 members of the club over 60 years old that have been members for over 20 years and 98 members over 55 that have been members for at least 5 years. Unfortunately, we only have 22 Junior members under 18.

Our youth are the lifeblood of our club. As I grew up, almost everybody I knew hunted, fished and knew how to use a firearm. I was out in the field with my father at the age of 6 and that Christmas received my very own shotgun. I had it until I turned 21 and then gave it to another shooter for his son.

Things have changed, especially in California. The shooting sport is static and is not growing. With the ever changing legislation in Sacramento, we are seeing a reduction in the number of people, especially our youth that are participating in events at clubs or hunting and fishing. It is one of the primary missions of our club to foster and encourage our youth to participate in the shooting sports.

Thanks to Fred Holden, his volunteers, and the Boy Scouts of America, we get the opportunity to introduce over 150 scouts a year to the shooting sports through the rifle and shotgun merit badges. The NRA Foundation has supported us with grants that allowed the club to purchase the ammunition and firearms to hold the events. Ten years ago Fred would be out running around to our members homes borrowing the firearms to hold the merit badge shoots. No longer. The continuing effort of our membership has helped introduce more youth to what the majority of our club love to do, shoot.

I am asking each and every member to think about what they can do to help promote our sport to the youth. Volunteering with the youth trap team, our Boy Scout events is great, but we need to find more junior members. If you know of a youth that is interested in shooting, talk to the parents and offer to become a mentor. Get the parents to join our club and by doing so start another youth on an adventure that will be fulfilling for a lifetime. If every one of us try and find just one family with children, we can increase our junior membership to a number that will sustain us as our current members' age.

Who do you know? Every one of us needs to find the youth that will perpetuate our sport.