Weiser gun club hosts event, commemorates 9-11

The Weiser Trap and Skeet Club hosted the fifth annual Caldwell Veterans Council Sporting Clay Shoot held Saturday, Sept. 11.
 More than 60 competitors vied for bragging rights as the most accurate shooter, in turn raising funds for the Caldwell Veterans Memorial Hall in Caldwell.
 “We usually raise between $6,000 and $8,000,” said Veterans Council Chairman Randy Jensen, who said funds from Saturday’s event was yet to be tallied. “It costs about $40,000 per year to pay the bills, like power and insurance, all the things it takes to keep our doors open, and that’s counting our outreach programs, for high-risk veterans and things like that.”
 The Caldwell Veterans Council is a non-profit organization consisting of veterans posts, chapters, and teams of the Veteran Service Organization, a coalition that has built relationships with 20 supporting agencies committing resources to the Caldwell Veterans Hall, which is in need of extensive restoration and renovation.
 The Hall’s renovation serves as the linchpin for legitimizing the renewal of veteran services in not only Canyon County but the entire Treasure Valley, according to the Caldwell Veterans Council website.
 The Council, which has held its events in many communities around the Treasure Valley, chose Weiser as the site of this year’s event to bring Idaho veterans together.
 “We’ve held events all over, but we hadn’t come to Weiser yet; this is the first time we’ve shot here,” Jensen said. “We really have our resident shooting expert, John Huddleston, to thank for this. For five years, it’s been his hard work and volunteerism that has made this happen. He has relationships all over the Treasure Valley and made it possible for us to come here.”
 Jensen said a big part of Saturday’s event involved the Young Marines, a national youth leadership and service program offering youths in eighth grade through high school the opportunity to focus on mental, moral, and physical development while being instructed in the values of leadership, teamwork, and self discipline.
 Members of Idaho’s southwest unit, based in Nampa, presented its color guard during a brief ceremony commemorating the attacks in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001. The flag was flown at half-staff and there was a moment of silence and prayer during the ceremony.
 The Caldwell Veterans Council worked diligently to arrange a helicopter flyover during the ceremony, but couldn’t get the needed paperwork pushed through the Pentagon in time.
 “Those types of things require the government’s approval, and we just couldn’t get it done, but maybe next year,” said Huddleston, who is a Vietnam-era veteran who served stateside within a U.S Army engineering battalion. “Overall, it was a very good event. We really enjoyed coming to Weiser and met lots of great people here.”
 

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18 E. Idaho St.
Weiser, ID 83672
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