At the beginning of each fall semester we have a recruitment drive to reach the new and returning students with information about our club and try to bring the shooting sport to college students. These students come from all across the commonwealth of Kentucky, many different states and even from other countries. For the past two years we have had over seventy students each year express interest in our club and have had more than twenty students of diverse backgrounds and experience in shooting, commit, pay dues and participate in our club.

Throughout the fall and spring semesters, as well as summer vacation our members participate in various fundraising opportunities in order to help offset some of the costs of entry fees, hotel fees, traveling fees as well as the weekly costs of ammunition and targets at practice. What we can't raise we pay out of our pocket. Right now we are in our push towards securing money that will allow us to participate in the NCUI national clay target competition in San Antonio, Texas.

But we are also discussing and planning for next year in an effort to increase membership and diversity for our club. The most glaring need we have found is the lack of community club firearms.

At the beginning of each semester we do a juggling routine with our members who have their own personal shotguns in an effort to provide firearms that can be borrowed for those who are interested in shooting with us. With various class and work schedules that are not very flexible, we often find ourselves short of firearms to lend to new shooters which leads to the discouragement of the new shooters who typically drop out of the club.

We have come to the conclusion that for this club to really experience new and sustainable growth we need to invest our resources into establishing a club “armory” that could be utilized by those members and potential members who do not own a firearm or have the resources to purchase one. We also feel that combined with the passion and talent of the underclassmen of our organization, this armory will not only ensure the existence of a shooting program here at the University of Kentucky, but its growth and refinement.

Our fundraising committee has done extensive research on our needs, contacting various firearm dealers and shotgun manufacturers, identifying the best overall shotgun for our organization. We have set what we feel is an attainable goal of $8,000-$10,000 that we hope to raise before the start of the next fall semester for the express purpose of purchasing somewhere between eight and ten Beretta 391s. These semi-automatic shotguns are extremely versatile, have low recoil, and will help facilitate the education of new shooters. They can be used not only in practice, but also allow our shooters to cut into the advantage of many of our competitors that utilize Benelli, Perazzi and other high end competition shotguns.

In our research we encountered many dealers who would be willing to supply the Berettas at cost as they do for many of the 4-H clubs. We hope that this expression of goodwill will also be reflected in those who participate and have an interest in the shooting community. For it is from this community that we hope to raise a large percentage of our funds, a hundred dollars here, fifty there. Small steps or large, as long as they are moving forward, will allow us to reach our goal.

Please contact me for more information of how you can help our organization and the growth of our club. Or if you would just like to learn more about us, what we do and what we stand for.
Sincerely,

President
University of Kentucky Trap & Skeet
Jordan Stapp

Personal email:       jordanstapp2@yahoo.com

Club email:            UKtrapskeet@yahoo.com