Carbon County reaped the rewards of more than 500 visitors in the area last weekend.
On April 19, the Utah Hunter Education Instructors Association in conjunction with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources held their annual NRA Youth Hunter Education Challenge (YHEC) State event at the North Springs Shooting Range.
Carbon County Director of Tourism Shalee Johansen said the event went smoothly and had everyone from participants, parents and local businesses raving about how positive it was. The influx of visitors were not just impressed with the facilities at the range and the event center, but also spoke highly of the helpfulness of the community and local business owners.
Price City Fire Chief Paul Bedont ran the muzzleloader station and spoke to almost every one who was there. Everything he heard about the community and the facilities was positive.
“This was the nicest and most helpful communities I have ever been to,” he said one of the contestant’s mothers said to him. “Every business I went to I found friendly people and I plan on coming back.”
One of the representatives from the NRA, which is a sponsor of the event, told Bedont, “you have a real gem here, the North Springs Shooting facility is top notch, clean and well designed. The event center rivals any I have seen.”
The representative later indicated he was going to recommend that Carbon County be considered to host the national event in the future.
Johansen said that the national event В would most likely take place in 2017. It would involve extensive cooperation from the community and would host well over 1,000 participants and families.
The event began with registration at noon Friday and ended Saturday afternoon with an awards ceremony at the Carbon County Event Center. There was a banquet on Friday night at the event center catered by Sam Farlaino.
YHEC is a NRA-sponsored youth program exclusively for hunter education course graduates from North America up to 18 years old. Participants often begin working with a partnering organization such as 4H, FFA , Boy Scouts or other groups.
Participants take part in regional or state level programs to become proficient in the skills of rifle and muzzleloaders, shotgun, archery, orienteering, wildlife identification, hunter safety trail and a hunter responsibility exam. There are both hands-on competitions and written exams in which each participant takes part.