Syracuse.com - 'Crossbow crusader' and Baldwinsville Rod and Gun Club honored at sportsmen's dinner

[HuntingNY-News]

Rick McDermott is the founder of the New York State Crossbow Coalition, a group dedicated to getting the crossbow categorized as a legal hunting implement in New York State.

Rick McDermott Peter Chen | [email protected]  

Crossbow advocate Rick McDermott and the Baldwinsville Rod and Gun Club were honored at Friday's annual banquet of the Onondaga Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs at the Spinning Wheel Restaurant in North Syracuse.

McDermott, of Albion, was honored as "Conservationist of the Year," and the Baldwinsville club was given the Club of the Year award. The President's Award went to Bob Dankiw, of the Camillus Sportsment's Club.

"Bob has stepped in and participated in many projects and committees that helped me run the Federation," said Stephen Wowelko, president of the Onondaga Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs. "Bob volunteered to take over as Federation Secretary when our elected secretary was out of town,"

McDermott's written nomination for the "Conservationist of the Year Award," drafted by Federation President Stephen Wowelko, read:

Rick’s recent and past activities in the Outdoors and for our Federation are numerous. Each echoes the theme of - "IT’S NOT WHAT YOU TAKE, BUT WHAT YOU GIVE”. Rick has given back a monumental amount to time, energy and money.

Some of Rick McDermott’s activities include:

Youth Activities – coordinated the joint youth pheasant hunt with CANY, Oswego Federation, NWTF and our Onondaga County Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs. I think coordinated is an understatement – Rick got permission from landowners to allow the kids to hunt, arranged for dogs and their handlers, promoted the event, took care of the registrations, obtained pheasants, rented port-a-johns, cooked lunches and instructed over 100 kids on safe pheasant hunting. A very successful program for a number of years.

Hunter Safety instructor – a dedicated instructor teaching our sportsmen and children on conservation and gun safety for many years.

Crossbow crusader – Rick was the founder of the New York State Crossbow Coalition. Digging into his own pocket he up fronted the money to form this organization. Rick has spent hundreds of hours working on getting the crossbow categorized as a legal hunting implement in New York State. He has taken much of his vacation time to travel to Albany again and again to meet with legislators and testify before the Environmental Conservation Committees. Rick has presented at our Federation meetings and arranged for legislators and DEC personnel to meet with our sportsmen.

When asked – do you hunt with a crossbow? Rick responded no I do not, when asked then why do you do it? – he responded because I feel it is the right thing to do for our sportsmen and women.

Participated in our Federation’s Sportsmen’s Days at Carpenter’s Brook Fish Hatchery – when BassPro Shops was not able to do the crossbow demonstration, on a short notice, Rick got a bunch of volunteers together and came to our rescue. They put over 600 people – men, women and children, through the crossbow demonstration last year.

Conservation Alliance of New York –; for several years Rick has been an officer on the Board of Directors of the Conservation Alliance of New York – who’s Mission is to secure hunting, fishing, trapping, and other sustainable activities which use New York's renewable natural resources, and to collaborate with others who share their vision.

Buses to Albany – for several years, Rick has single-handily arranged buses for our Federation to go to Albany. This February, on a short notice Rick arranged buses for over 225 sportsmen from Oswego and Onondaga County to travel to Albany to let the governor and legislature know how we felt about the NY Safe Act. Rick negotiated with 3 different bus companies, handled reservations, arranged the logistics of pickup and drop-off, and provided information from the New York Rifle and Pistol Association along with SCOPE on the issue. With donations from clubs, federations, sportsmen and money left over from the busses, Oswego and Onondaga County jointly donated $2000 to help in the lawsuits against the NY Safe Act.

Most importantly Rick can be considered a bridge builder – building good relationships between our Federation, the Oswego Federation and other sporting organizations.

Rick McDermott has dedicated a lifetime of giving back to the outdoor sports. He has been a tremendous asset to our Federation – even though he lives in Albion in Oswego County. He is a prime example of what an Onondaga County Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs Conservationist of the year should be.

The nomination for the Baldwinsville Club, written by Thomas G. Merrill, a club spokesman, read:

The Baldwinsville Rod and Gun Club (BRGC) would like to be considered this year by the Onondaga County Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs (OCFSC) for the “Club of the Year” award. Our club continues to improve and make progress, and we have a long list of accomplishments this year.

Our club’s support of the OCFSC is matched by few other member clubs. In 2012, that was evident by our participation on OCFSC committees, at OCFSC meetings, and OCFSC events. The BRGC can always be counted on to host a delegate's meeting and we will be hosting the March 2013 meeting. Our members regularly attend the President’s Dinner, the Sportsmen’s Award Banquet, and the Delegate's Picnic. When the Federation holds an event, BRGC members are eager participants, helping with the work load and making donations. Our members did their part to support last year’s OCFSC gun raffle.

Three of our members are on the Federation’s Board of Directors.

Our club members are active on the OCFSC Women in Nature (WIN) committee and participate as volunteers at the WIN event and set up and tear down, as well as, the club providing equipment and wild game donations. Our members truly enjoy introducing people to the shooting sports. For a second year, as part of WIN, the BRGC held a sporting clays clinic for women at our facility. We will be hosting similar events this year.

Our members are active participants on the Sportsman’s Days committee.

We participated in the OCFSC Sportsmen’s Days by setting up and manning a trap shooting booth, as well as helping set up tents and transport equipment for other participants. We had between 10 to 15 members supporting this booth over the two day event, and it is always one of the most popular attractions at the show. Our members also fill in many other roles as required (ie. setting up, cleanup, parking, cooking and serving at the Saturday dinner for volunteers).

In addition to supporting the Federation, our club supports many other organizations, and the BRGC rarely misses an opportunity to open our doors to other clubs, the public, and in particular to youth and women’s groups. Our club traditionally allows organizations outside our regular club membership the use of our club facilities in an effort to promote the shooting sports and the outdoor sportsman’s way of life. We always try to accommodate requests to use our club's facilities and equipment. We routinely loan tables, chairs, etc. to our neighbors for weddings, graduations, etc.

We opened our doors to the Greater Ithaca Activities Club, a youth group from Ithaca. This group has come to use our club for the last five years, and this past year they visited our club on two occasions. We held a New York State Hunter Safety course. Syracuse University held three field labs for their forensics classes to gain hands on firearms experience on our club’s grounds. This class is the most popular class in the entire science department on campus and we will be allowing SU to use the club again in 2013. Rochester Personal Defense puts on at least one class every month at our club.

In 2012, the BRGC sponsored three youths to attend DEC camp. This year, we anticipate sending two youths to DEC camp.

The BRGC held two charity shoots to benefit local organizations. The shoots benefited the Military Courtesy Room at Syracuse Hancock International Airport, and the Ruffed grouse Society. We also hosted shooting events for the Madison County Friends Of NRA Committee, WIN committee, Ducks Unlimited, and the Central New York Wildfowlers.

Over the years, we have opened our facilities to several outdoor groups for their use. We also hosted two groups of new shooters who were coworkers of our members.

In addition to events held at our own club, BRGC also sends large contingents of our members to support other events such as the CNY Ruffed Grouse Society's fund raising shoot at Kadat Sports Farm, in Georgetown, NY; the cancer fundraiser to benefit Mike Graham (president of the Federated Sportsmen's Clubs of Madison County), at Vernon National Shooting Preserve; the Women and Youth shooting event at Vernon National Shooting Preserve, sponsored by the Federated Sportsmen's Clubs Of Madison County; several members shooting for several different teams in the Central New York summer trap league; and we field a team competing in the Tri-County Trap League every summer.

The BRGC is open to the public weekly for events. Every Saturday we have skeet and trap shooting, both are open to the public. During the spring and summer months, our club is open to the public on Thursday for sporting clay shooting and on Monday for trap shooting. For the sixth straight year, we have held a sight-in day where the public was invited to sight in their rifles and shotguns for upcoming hunting season.

The BRGC supports the New York State Conservation Council (NYSCC). The club participates in the Buck-a-Member program. In 2012, we gave over $500 toward that program. Fred Neff, a BRGC member, is the Federation’s delegate to the NYCC and Tom Merrill, also a BRGC member, is the NYSCC alternate. Fred was the 2012 Chairman for the Region 7 Conservation League. Tom Merrill is the Vice-Chairman for 2013.

The BRGC is a big supporter of the local Friend’s Of NRA groups. Our members are very active in the friend’s group and our members support them with their fund raisers. Our members actively recruit new members for the NRA. Our club members also support other fund raising banquets, including, but, not limited to, CNY Ruffed Grouse Society; CNY Pheasants Forever; CNY Wildfowlers; National Wild Turkey Federation, CNY Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation; and Ducks Unlimited.

Our members actively fight for gun-owner’s rights. At a recent Rally in Albany to protest New York State's SAFE Gun Act, our club sponsored 10 members to attend on the Federation bus and several more attended on their own when they found that the buses were filled to capacity. During that rally, our members met with several Senators and Assemblymen (11 total) to voice our concerns. Two of our members spoke publically at a recent Onondaga County Legislature session to support a county resolution calling for a full repeal of the NYS SAFE Gun Act.

Last year, we made several improvements to our club. Our members built a large, two story storage building with two traps on the second floor for the sporting clays field, and we are putting the finishing touches on our archery range which includes a raised shooting platform. We also built an eight foot tall earthen berm separating the rifle range from the archery range, so that both may be safely used without having to worry about a cease fire on both to facilitate down range activities on one or the other. This year, we hope to add on to our rifle range with handicap access.

The BRGC continues to grow. Last year, we surpassed our record year set in 2011. We finished the year with well over 500 memberships sold, which makes for a total of nearly 1000 members, after family memberships are accounted for. This year our members competed in the BRGC third annual shotgun championship in which participants shoot 25 targets each trap, skeet, and sporting clays. It is great fun for our members who work hard all year making our club great.

In summary, our club was very busy again last year, and this year will be even busier. Our club seeks out opportunities to educate and promote shooting sports to those who may have never held a gun. We believe our members and our facilities make our club one of the best in the area.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog