Main Street Guns and Knives ….

Main Street Guns and Knives in Medford at the event, including a Henry Golden Boy for one of the 20 to 30 veterans in attendance. One of the main parts of their mission is to try to keep everything as local as possible, and so working with small businesses like Main Street Guns or Colby Metal, who helps sponsor the raffle during the banquet, is something that they do as often as they can.

“With some larger, national organizations, if you go to a banquet like that, all that money gets sent to the organization at a national level and then they send you a small portion back to spend locally,” Totzke said. “Whereas everything that we raise, we spend as locally as we can, within a 50 mile radius of the Abbotsford area.”

This was on full display for their most recent excursion, in which the board, which usually handles most of the volunteer activities themselves, took veteran Shane Piantek and his family up to Little Lakes Memories by Irma for their annual veterans’ whitetail hunt. Local businesses like Smith Brothers Meats and Ray’s Market in Colby and County Market in Abbotsford were primary choices for the meals over the weekend hunt.

The veterans’ hunt is one of the organization’s most important excursions of the year, something that is not just for the hunter, but also an event for their whole family.

“When it comes to the hunt, we try to make it a family experience,” Totzke said. “It’s about the hunt and the hunter, but it’s also about their family. We want to give them all a getaway, give them a weekend to relax and get away from whatever they might have going on at home.”

While Piantek headed out to the woods with some of the members of CWF3, others stayed behind at the lodge with wife Toni and their three daughters for other activities like carving pumpkins, sewing quilts and frosting fall-themed cookies.

The event is, like any whitetail hunt, somewhat dependent on the deer, sometimes wrapping up on Saturday or going through the Sunday evening if necessary. This year, the deer were uncooperative, and while Piantek was unable to bag that trophy buck this time, the group is hoping to get him back out there in mid-November to give it another go.

And while Totzke and the rest of CWF3 are more than happy to help in any way that they can through events like these veterans’ hunts, they also hope that others in the community can see what they are doing and feel encouraged to do similar things.

“I hope people realize that you don’t need an organization to do these kinds of things,” Totzke said. “If you have a neighbor kid who you know likes hunting or fishing, take the opportunity to take them with you. If you are taking out your kid and they have a friend who would be interested, take them out too. Getting people at a young age into the outdoors is what is going to keep the outdoor community and the outdoor tradition alive and well.”

Shane Piantek with his wife Toni and their three daughters, as well as members of CWF3 and their significant others before the veterans’ hunt at Little Lakes Memories in Irma Wisconsin. CWF3 holds the annual hunt on the 105-acre plot for a deserving veteran.

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