Ramseur, NC Aug 18-19

[Lawrence]

An unfortunate inconsistency between our forum schedule dates and the eventbrite dates reduced our attendance slightly but we still had 12 of our 18 registrations make the necessary adjustments. Thanks to Chainsaw, our Regional Coordinator, for his help in rectifying the error.

We welcomed 7 first time Appleseeders and 5 repeat shooters. Of those we had 3 father and son pairs, always an encouraging and healthy sign for our future.

Three Riflemen confirmed their qualifications on Sunday and we welcomed one new Riflewoman to our ranks on the last AQT of the weekend!

Melissa had already displayed her stubborn perseverance five weeks prior when she spent five hours overcoming ambiguous directions and disappearing contact information to arrive at her first Ladyseed in Elon, NC. Having done the best she could that weekend, she immediately registered for the next available Appleseed. Thankfully, it was ours!

The pace of instruction challenged her somewhat, so we assigned one of our best (M1NC) to help her exclusively for the day. By the first AQT on Saturday she posted a respectable 203 and immediately forecast that she would score Rifleman and take an Orange Hat on Sunday. She joined us for our instructor dinner that night and enthusiastically began inviting the waitress staff to our next Appleseed. Would Promotions be in her future?

Sunday morning arrived only to remind her that when you are slightly older than Hezekiah Wyman your spirit must overcome the limitations of your body. The AQT grid was a challenge and her hopes were diminishing when she decided to take a break late Sunday afternoon. It was a providential decision. At that very moment Fred (the helpful) arrived! As I comforted her, he invited us into the recently air conditioned clubhouse to chat and instinctively recognized not only her frustration but her underlying determination. And of course advised her not only to persevere but to forget about the score and simply focus on the joy of the process. Returning to the line just in time for the final AQT, she fired an outstanding 235. Celebration ensued and below is a photo of us presenting her with her new Orange Hat. Needless to say, it was the crowning moment of the weekend!

Welcome Melissa (DAR-Patriot) to our ranks. She is an active member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, with three ancestors who were part of the "Over the Mountain Men" who came from Kentucky, Tennessee, western Virginia and North Carolina to defeat and kill the notorious Loyalist Patrick Ferguson at King's Mountain, NC in October of 1780. She is also an active re enactor and will join our promotions team in Hickory, NC for the September "Self Reliance Expo".

[Lawrence]

Currently, photos will not upload to AAR.

[DAR-Patriot]

Wow, Lawrence, I am humbled by your accolades, however totally accurate that they are!! You should be a writer!  Setting a goal and being determined really does make the difference, inspite of limitations and difficulties, I was determined they would not stop me.  I am delighted to be a part of such a wonderful active group of patriots who are making a difference, one person at a time!  I was thrilled to see the young people's faces and many older who heard the true stories of the first day of the Revolutionary War, many for the first time, of heroic Patriots who put it all on the line for the freedoms we  enjoy today! I want to thank the Instructors who patiently guided me to my ultimate goal, they truly made the difference and I could not have achieved such fine results without everyone's patience and help!  On Thursday I attended my District DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) meeting.  I arrived early to ask for 5 minutes to address the group of 85 ladies so I could share the wonders of the Appleseed Project with them.  Sadly, that did not happen but I didn't let that stop me, oh no, I spoke to everyone that would listen and passed out 50 brochures, all that I had.  Many ladies were happy to hear about it and felt it was a great cause, some even confided that they were conceal carry holders. One of the State directors refused my request because my program involved guns!  Can you believe it........she certinly is in for a wakeup call someday!   I plant seeds now wherever I can. Thank you for welcoming me into the fold, I pledge to do my very best and look forward to meeting everyone on the team!  May God Bless America and our Troops!!
Melissa Williams
www.mistymtshelties.com
Mt. Holly, NC

[R1SGx2]

3 father and son pairs,

Nice

Welcome Melissa (DAR-Patriot) to our ranks. She is an active member of the Daughters of the American Revolution

And thank you for staying the course and scoring a 235 RIFLEMAN. Very nice work.

Good work by all, Lawrence, were do you find the time... And Fred, ya never know where he will show up.

Thank you all Home Team for all you do,,,...

[Lawrence]

Photo of DAR-Patriot receiving her Orange Hat from adamsod.

[Botbasher]

As one of the Father/Son teams, we're on the left in the posted pic, I just wanted to mention in this AAR that I can't think of a better way to spend the weekend! My son and I had the most fun not only learning proper techniques, but having a friendly little challenge between us. Dad may shoot better for the moment, but it won't last long!

The Instructors were "par excelance" and although neither of us managed to shoot Rifleman on this weekend, simple things like Som's (Sp?) careful eye spotting me not performing a proper follow through on trigger pull made improving easy if your open to critiques (harder than it sounds!!). That simple catch by him managed to pull my AQT's from the mid 150's to a respectable 205! Arg... Missed it by that much!!  But I took the information provided and spent the next weekend at the range practicing the 6 Steps and the improvement was immediate!

We came back to the very next AS Shoot (2 weeks between attempts) and both made Rifleman (Dad-225, Son-219 he even had 2 misfires on his!!) under the expert guidance of most of the same Instructors. They were as proud of the achievement as we were!

I had heard good and bad about the AS Program before attending, but I can not for the life of me figure out where the bad came from. The history lessons are nothing less than moving (Yes Sadman.. I said it again  ), the Instruction is clear and paced so that anyone listening can follow (Found an old WWII infantry training film and AS is nearly verbatim of it, so there is little that is not tried and true being taught!), and the pace of the program allows you plenty of feedback to gauge your improvement (Redcoats start and finish the day, lots of adj sighters and loads of AQTs!).

I will tell you that the guys in the shop think I drank some funny Kool-Aid in Ramsuer, NC. I have done nothing but talk about it since returning and almost have a few takers. You wouldn't think it would be that hard to convince guys to come out and shoot, learn and have a bucket of fun! I'll keep trying though!

As one of the new IIT Orange Hats, I'll try my best to carry on the torch!

Thanks to all for the great time!

Ken & Jordan Stevens