A private shoot with Fraternus a Church based program of mentoring youth into being virtuous men. I cannot express enough how well the men and youth of Fraternus paid attention, learning both History and Marksmanship. O0
60 % of the 50 participants that showed up were under 18. 30 + rifles loaned out, instructors that drove in some cases 9 hours, temperatures 90 DEGREES with no shade in the Everglades of Florida. Even the Florida natives were asking is it only the middle of February?
O0
30 plus loaners!?
Huzzah!
Keep up the great work Florida Cadre!
:F
What a weekend! I was not prepared for the summertime temps we experienced, it is not suppose to be that hot in February. What great group of folks and a great facility. With 47 shooters on the line all went well and much progress made. With the best history lessons in Appleseed I was amazed to watch Engineer Shooting grab the attention of all within ear shot and keep it through all three strikes. I think the kids and parents enjoyed the stories of our history as much as the shooting.
It is weekends like this that make me proud to wear an Appleseed hat and be a part of Florida's Appleseed team. A finer more dedicated group of men and women you could not find.
GREAT EVENT!! We were hosted by an awesome range - would like to thank everyone for their hospitality!! The Fraternus group was great to work with -- all came with teachable attitudes which was proven by increasing scores. We had a great weekend: Great history, Great instructors, Great company, Great shooting, GREAT TIMES!!! ^:)^
Ditto to all. We were also in a very unique setting....
1 minute video
https://youtu.be/_Wi-yt2MP-0
The tireless irate minority........
This certainly was a unique event. It was great to see the boys go from nervously carrying (with instructor accompanying) their assigned loaner rifles to the line and having to be reminded how to make them safe to shooting quite confidently and being spot on on making rifles safe with consistency.
It was also a gentle reminder to those of us that obsess with scoring high expert on the AQT to find joy in small, incremental improvement instead. Who else heard joyous exclamations of "I got one in! (the target)" on day 2?
Thanks for the opportunity.
drumNGun
What a great event! Special thanks to Altair Training, Fraternus and our most excellent group of dedicated instructors. I shall simply say it was the VERY best of times!
ALTAIR - http://www.altairtrainingsolutions.com/
FRATERNUS - https://www.fraternus.net/
There is a YouTube video presentation posted from the event, it can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc5oMDZDCEM&feature=youtu.be
Enjoy the many pictures I took below........
More pictures......
And........more. Crazy, right??
On behalf of the Ave Maria Fraternus Leadership Team, I want to extend our sincere thanks to the incredibly talented, passionate, and selfless patriots who ran our Appleseed program this past weekend at Altair. I'm still in awe that some of the instructors drove 9 hours each way to volunteer their time with us. 50+ attendees, 30+ loaner rifles, blazing FL sun, and lots of logistical details that we were all still working out as the weekend unfolded. The Appleseed team rose to the occasion and our boys and fathers enjoyed a weekend that most will remember for a long time to come. Thank you for what you did for our brothers this weekend and thank you for sustaining a program that uniquely combines history, heritage, and marksmanship. And a final word of thanks to Bob Campbell and the folks at Altair for being phenomenal hosts in a first-class facility. Huzzah!
Last weekend approximately 40 miles separated two groups of Florida teenagers.
One group wailed in terror over the dead bodies of their classmates, gunned down by another teen. The other stretched out on a firing line cradling a semi-automatic rifle firing round after round hurting no one. Guns were at both scenes, teenagers were at both. The big differences: parents at one place cried and rushed to TV to broadcast their grief and demand government action to ban guns. The other: parents worried about kids getting fed, paying attention to talks on history, fretting over sunscreen and thanking others for lending rifles to their children. The first group called in reporters to blame state officials and the President of the United States along with the five million members of the NRA. The other group called in a Catholic Priest to thank God for their blessings. The first group is getting 24/7 coverage on TV. The second group only a self-produced video on You Tube.
This comparison of one week's events highlight what lack of decent human value, belief in a Higher Power, involvement of committed men in raising teens, and media priority on what stories to saturate America with. I am humbly grateful that by the Grace of God I am able to be with the second group.
Salt Water Shooter
Truer words have nkt been spoken on the Internet in a while. I truly enjoyed working with these young men.
What powerful words I agree completely ! Lucky Lori
Powerful words indeed. This needs to be shared widely, with proper permission and attribution of course.
Ditto!
Bruce and Janet, I am headed you way (Ft. Stewart, GA) in a few months. Whenever you are doing this again, i would love to be a part of it. Chris