It is with a heavy heart that I must inform you that the Appleseed planned for this weekend at the Port Malabar Rifle & Pistol Club in Palm Bay, FL, will now be cancelled due to Coronavirus concerns. When the "Mouse House" closes, i.,e., when Disneyworld closes in Orlando, it is a clear sign that the risk from Coronavirus in our local specific area is approaching dangerous risk levels. For the attendees who have already paid, we will notify you separately of the option to transfer to another, later, event, either in Palm Bay or elsewhere, or to receive a refund. For the attendees planning on being walk-ons, I will be at the range taking down targets that were put up earlier this morning, on Saturday morning. For the staff who put up targets this morning, I thank you. I will be at the range on Saturday morning to take targets down, and to inform any walk-ons who do not get this word of the cancellation of the event that was planned for this weekend.
Appleseed's goal is always to provide a safe environment in which to learn Rifle Marksmanship along with American Heritage, as passed down from our Founding Fathers. With the rapid spread of the Coronavirus, locally, it has become impossible to guarantee the safety of our attendees and of our staff for this weekend. We will resume Appleseed events locally when it is safe to do so. This weekend, too, we had planned to provide loaner rifles for at least 4 and probably 5+ attendees, and the difficulty in sanitizing these loaner rifles used in the event, both before and after each day, simply makes it too difficult to take the risk. And, our attendees, too, were coming from Palm Bay, Melbourne, Jensen Beach, Orlando, and Tampa, throughout both Central and South Florida, all areas of which have had recent isolated cases of Coronavirus.
We will work through these disruptions, and continue our mission of "Saving the Country" while also being prudent. May God Bless You All, and, May God Bless America.
In Liberty,
"Guntuckian"