Project Appleseed

Great work on making the plan and working the plan. Glad to hear they are alright.

Thanks Booga for the good information learned.

Thanks for all you did, Darrell 
Best of luck in your future endevours.

Many people reading this have the great fortune of knowing Darrell Brown (Vaportrace) personally. Some have not. Here is an introduction to the man on the occasion of his stepping away from active volunteering in Project Appleseed.

Darrell hails from Wilson, NC. He joined Project Appleseed in 2017 and has served as instructor, shoot boss, and North Carolina state coordinator (before handing that job over to yours truly). In all of those capacities, Darrell always operated with good humor, grace, and unwavering generosity. As so many leaders in Project Appleseed do, Darrell holds those around him to high standards, but always with kind support and an instinct to educate.

On July 24 this year, Darrell officially retired from Project Appleseed. To me that news is the definition of bittersweet. I was immediately saddened, but at the same time filled with gratitude to have received mentorship from Darrell and to have gotten to spend some quality time with him. I am quite sure that I am not alone in those sentiments.

Here are two examples of Darrell's signature generosity. One evening during a multi-day event at the home range in Ramseur, Darrell grilled up a pair of big, beautiful steaks for himself and another instructor under the covered deck of the firing line. I happened to mention in passing that the cooking meat smelled wonderful. Darrell didn't hesitate for a second. He immediately exclaimed, "Do you want one? You can have mine!" I laughed, thinking he was teasing. But Darrell was dead serious. He was rather insistent that I take his steak, even though I protested that I had my own dinner, but thank you very much! I barely managed to convince Darrell to eat the meal he had meticulously made for himself and another friend.

The next day a different volunteer was looking for a spare official shirt for instructing. Darrell declared that he had an undershirt on, then he removed his own instructor shirt and handed it over. Until that moment I thought that giving someone the shirt off your back was just a figure of speech, but Darrell proved me wrong!

I am personally indebted to Darrell for his guidance, his model of heart-centered leadership, and for getting Project Appleseed on solid footing in North Carolina before my tenure as state coordinator. I hope you will all join me in wishing him well on all the roads before him now.

Tar Heel

Folks, I'm experiencing technical difficulties this week with our system that sends the newsletter. Hopefully it will land in email inboxes soon, but in the meantime, here is the web version of the August newsletter:

CLICK HERE!

What a great weekend! It was a pleasure meeting some new shooters and instructors, catching up with the friends I'd met before, and seeing so many of you hit new milestones.

Pictures from my phone:

Looks great guys!!!  Can't wait to see more pictures and video!!

WOW!  This sounds like a special event!  Congrats to the new and the improved KD Rifleman scores!!!

Special Congrats to Tar Heel and Big John!  Both well-deserved promotions to dSB! 

SBC as well as all other IBCs are a fantastic way to hone our instructing skills and are also a blasts to attend getting to see friends both old and new. 

I'm sure this being held at the home range made it even more special - Big John, you are right that there is just something special about that place.  I love attending events at Ramseur!

Thanks MO and Google for all you do -- and of course UpaCreek!!

It's great seeing that everyone had a great time and I am sure learned a lot!

Another great event in Muenster!  Great shooting!

It's always an excellent weekend getting a refresher on fundamental marksmanship, especially when it's around good company and good instructors. Thank you to ScottInTX, LittleMissE, and AF5US for imparting more knowledge, adding in tips to improve our consistency, and encouraging us to shoot better and better as the weekend went along. I'll likely sign up for that upcoming KD event, so hopefully we'll see y'all again soon... And hopefully I'll improve my consistency enough to earn that coveted Distinguished badge!

It was an outstanding weekend at the South Kent Sportsmans Club in Dorr with great participants and an excellent crew of volunteers.
While Saturday started out overcast with intermittent rain and mist it didn't dampen the enthusiasm of our shooters. After the initial welcome we moved right into presenting Aspen with her Orange Hat on her first event as an ITT.
After scoring her Rifleman patch on the first day of the June event at Dorr, Aspen showed the skills and temperament that it takes to be an instructor as she selflessly set aside her time to shoot and helped coach her siblings and friend who were attending at that time.  I talked with her that Sunday to gauge her interest in becoming an IIT and much to my pleasure, she signed up in early July. Thank you Aspen for joining our team !
After getting the Safety Briefing done we set about seeing where the shooters were with the Red Coat Hits Count targets. Fidget, Zorak and Pookie gave our shooters the necessary Steady Hold Factors, Sling use, Six steps, NPOA and Trigger Control points of instruction to work on making their groups small. By the third  Squares target the majority of the shooters were between 8 and 4 MOA so Zorak presented Inches Minutes Clicks to help them match their point of aim to their point of impact.
At Lunch Zorak held our attention with the story of First strike. In the afternoon the Seated and Standing POIs were presented along with rifleman cadence, NPOA shifts, Mag changes and Transition practice. After Fidget gave us her version of Second Strike the first AQT was shot. The Shoot boss presented Third Strike and the Benediction before the day's final Red Coat was shot.
The weekend's first AQT gave us our first new Riflewoman with Nevada scoring a 219. Jim  requalified with a 232 as did Rob with a 216.
On the Red Coat, 10 hit the Morgan's Shingle and 5 Cleared the target. Great Job Adlai, AJ, Rob, Jim and Nevada.
Sunday dawned clear and sunny but unfortunately for yours truly, I was rendered "combat ineffective" by a sudden stomach ailment. I had an excellent crew and with the addition of IIT icychicken to the group the team was still at full strength. I put the event in Fidget's capable hands and rested in my vehicle just yards from the event bay till I felt recovered enough to return to the line.
My crew did an outstanding job of instruction review, drills, coaching and staying ahead of the time monkey and they deserve a lot of credit for the success of this weekend.
Sunday's 6 AQT's gave us 2 new Riflemen in Adlai and AJ with a 210 and 214 respectively, and 2 new Riflewomen in Prairie (the youngest at 12) and Misty with 216. Congratulations to all ! As a plus Misty has decided to step up and take an Orange Hat,  HUZZAH !
We  broke up the AQT grind with a Parker's Revenge Fun Shoot with 3 teams of 5, each having 2 riflemen. The Riflemen were limited to shooting from the seated or standing positions with the other team members shooting from their favorite position. Team names were Lamson, Davis and Parker. Team Parker edged out a 5 point win over Team Lamson. The winners ( Adlai, Vallee, Ross, Steven & Misty ) got their choice of some premium Appleseed stickers.
Second and third place teams got some nice Appleseed consolation stickers for their efforts as well.
One of the highlights of the weekend for me was Darcie, who was shooting a firearm for the first time went from a 40 on her first AQT to a 151 on her final AQT gaining confidence from her improvement, and enthusiasm for the Project Appleseed program.
Even though they didn't shoot a score that would earn a Rifleman patch, Ross, Steven, Shawn, Justin, Michael, Valley, Seneca, and Darcie, showed the perseverance and determination that it takes to eventually become Riflemen.
Many thanks to our host club South Kent Sportsmans Club for great facilities.
A huge thank you to my instructor team of Fidget, Pookie,  Zorak, Aspen, icychicken and jennwilber73 for your outstanding work.
Hope to see everyone again soon.

In Liberty
MI-copperhead