The legacy that Kevin Hisey left behind is a very hard one to follow. We wanted to honor him by naming the youth award program after him. He sadly passed away in 2015. He leaves behind an outstanding legacy to follow. Glenn Hisey his father was very honored and gave us his blessing.
Kevin was a devoted father and grandfather and enjoyed every one of them. He began his career with the Pope & Young Club in 1992 working side by side with his father Glenn Hisey and later his sister Karla Hamersma. Kevin filled many hats while employed at the club and in 2000 became the Executive Secretary; which was the longest term served in club history. Kevin was very well liked by everyone that he had the chance to visit with. He knew all the workings of the club and was very efficient in doing so.
By naming the youth program after him, we are hoping that the parents and youth of today and the future, learn of Kevin’s love for the outdoors and fair chase bowhunting. Staying involved with the youth of today will keep his dreams of keeping youth involved in the outdoors and archery. This will lead us to a great future of youth bowhunters.
The club has worked very hard at trying to keep our youth hunters involved in fair chase bowhunting. We are hoping that this new program will do just that. Starting off with not only large game awards but enhancing their bowhunting skills with a small game awards program by adding various award levels and give them a sense of greater involvement.
The Kevin Hisey youth program is very simple and can all be done online.
1st Award
First harvest award (any legal big or small game in their respective state)
Recognition- emailed certificate + picture in the ethic/website youth gallery
Fee: $5 per entry
2nd Award
Big 3 Award (3 of any sex of North American big game and free ranging exotic species)
Recognition- mailed certificate + challenge coin + picture in ethic/website youth Gallery
Fee: $10 per entry
3rd Award
Small game slam award equals 5 out of the 10 listed below.
Recognition- mailed certificate + challenge coin + picture in ethic/website youth gallery.
Invited to the youth presentation at the biennial convention (small plaque given to those who attend)
Fee: $10 per entry
3rd award animal list;
Bobcat
Bow fishing (legal fish in respective state)
Coyote
Fox
Javalina
Rabbit
Raccoon
Squirrel
Turkey
Opossum
We felt this was a good representation of some easy objectives and a few challenging ones.
You do not need to be a member to participate but we would like all youth to join. It is a very low cost of $10 per year.
As a club, the youth aspect has always been there for the youth to utilize. The issues we were seeing was that we did have a membership for them and to let them see what the club was all about. That wasn’t enough so we put together a program that not only let them see that we support conservation and fair chase hunting but want them to get as involved as they wanted to be.
We need to show our youth that supporting them and the club, is a great way to keep conservation alive while giving them a goal to shoot for from their own back yard. Now that we have started down this path with our youth, we want to show them that staying with the club not only as a youth but to carry on as an active adult member. We feel this is a great way to start them as young as they are and to show them that this program, and the Pope & Young Club has been and always will be a vital part of conservation and bowhunting.
Since the inception of the Pope & Young Club in 1962, the members for the club have utilized support from not only bowhunters and hunters, but also from companies and corporations alike. We have several programs in place to help support conservation and bowhunting. A few examples are membership, both youth and adult, Fred Bear Society, our corporate sponsors program, conservation program, recording an animal if it makes the record book, or just a good ole donation. Anything that helps the club support bowhunting, helps tremendously.
I look forward to seeing many of you down the road. Good luck and hunt hard.
