February 3, 2024 • 39 mins
Sarah Hall; Project and Events Manager Sarah focuses on planning and executing our fundraising events. Sarah is a product of the athletes we support, starting her shooting career in 4-H and then becoming a scholar-athlete with the University of Kentucky Rifle Team. Sarah has been with the Foundation for 6 years.
Dani Farris; Marketing Manager Dani markets all the programs of MidwayUSA Foundation, from the website to social media, to digital and print advertising. Dani also works closely with Sarah to plan and execute events. Dani has been with the Foundation for 10 years and is passionate about the important life lessons our youth gain when they participate in sports and are part of a team.
Dani Farris; Marketing Manager Dani markets all the programs of MidwayUSA Foundation, from the website to social media, to digital and print advertising. Dani also works closely with Sarah to plan and execute events. Dani has been with the Foundation for 10 years and is passionate about the important life lessons our youth gain when they participate in sports and are part of a team.
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(00:02):
Tradition, conservation, family, theoutdoors. It matters to you, it
matters to us. This is HuntingMatters, presented by Houston Safari Club Foundation.
Here's Joe Bitar. We made it. We survived another convention. Congratulations,
(00:23):
you looked a little warren hard andput up wet. Yeah. But
otherwise, I'm you're here. I'mgonna go have a uh, I'm gonna
go get a botox and botox injectionsinder my eyes. Yeah. Either that
or I don't know, I gottado something. Man. How much alcohol
was consumed? Not none by me? I didn't have a guess. No,
I can barely have time to eat. Yeah, but I'm sure there
(00:46):
was quite a bit consumed. Imean I saw the bartenders and waitresses very
busy. But everybody had a goodtime. Everybody had a good time.
Yeah, a good time. Weraised a lot of money. We're still
we're still reconciling the books. Buthad a great turnout, sold out all
exhibit spaces. The bankers were prettybusy, and yep, everybody's that you
did pass it. Now we're planningfor next year. I was just gonna
say, when's the next year?Do you have a date yeah, uh
(01:08):
the uh whatever that's it is?I mean, but you do have a
date. Yeah, I think it'sa twenty first, twenty second next year.
Okay, we're already booked. We'realready booked for next year. So
yeah, we're we're already having conversationsand meetings talking about next year, which
we were actually doing on the floorthere. We're well start talking about next
year. We didn't talk about thisbefore the show started this morning, but
I just wanted to let you knowthat I am officially taking my name out
(01:30):
of MC in next year an MC. Yeah you don't want MC. I
don't want M, so don't eventalk about it. I'm knocking on this
door. Okay, yeah, Iget it. I know you are.
Or do you want to be likethat? We couldn't afford you anyway.
Well, no, that's true.And uh, last time I am C,
I caused a fire and uh anold lady broker a hip. Oh
(01:53):
so I think I'm cursed. Yeah, well we'll pass then, Yeah,
you just come sit bid on stuff. I would. I think I've been
to one. I've been to theexpo, but I've never been to the
banquet. You need to come halfof the reason was because of the security
issue with me and the other reasonthis year I had to go to mar
A Lago and hang out with theformer president Trump. How is mister Trump
(02:15):
again? He was high spirits.Now ironically coincidentally, I guess, not
ironically coincidentally. The day we werethere was the day he was putting his
mother in law to rest, justpassed, and they were literally, Joe,
I'm using the word literally in thecorrect context. They were literally right
next door at the church to wherewe were at the hotel at the breakers,
(02:37):
they were right next door. There'sTrump. We didn't see him,
but there was the procession and therewere the people filing in. And so
that night at dinner at mar Lagowe didn't see him there, which we
didn't suspect we would. But thenext day, sitting out on the patio
at mar A Lago, secret Servicewalks out, so you know, okay,
yeah, Grande's coming. He's friey. How's it going, How you
(02:59):
doing. It's good to see ya, But he's walking, He's got places
to be. He was literally jumpingon the helicopter to go to New Hampshire
that night. That's cool, Yeah, for the primary cool or for yeah,
whatever it was. But yeah,I mean it's neat, you know,
and I'm a fan of Trump.But even if I wasn't, just
the fact that this is a presidentof the United States, a former president.
It's just the position, the youknow, the office. It's just
(03:21):
really cool. That is cool.And you got to state at the Breakers,
I stayed at the Breakers, stayedthere before. It's a great hotel.
I was. I was way overmy head there. Boy, yeah,
I wanted that sales war trip.And we went and stayed in the
Breakers for a week and didn't wentfishing and stuff. Way back twenty years
ago or so. It hasn't changed. Probably, no, I mean they
remember your name, mister Rood tosee mister hey, mister Robos, how
(03:42):
are you, miss rob fantastic.They never called me mister Robos. Oh
well, that's that's unfortunate. Beforewe knew each other. All right,
folks, Houston's Fark Club Foundation hassome cool stuff coming up. We just
will still do stuff. We stilldo stuff. February seventeenth, we're having
the European style Tower Pheasant Shoot.We're gonna be talking a little about shooting
today and then on February twenty fourth, we are doing a volunteer day out
(04:03):
on the Katie Prairie with the CoastalPrairie Conservancy. I know where that is.
Yeah, you should come. Bringthe boys. They can plant some
plants and throw rocks. Can weshoot some of the birds? No,
No, we're just gonna eat them. We're gonna be planting, planting stuff
and cleaning up and stuff. That'sFebruary twenty fourth, So go to we
we give dot org, click onthe membership drop down and see all the
monthly events. You do not haveto be a member to participate. We'd
(04:25):
love for you to join and becomepart of our organization as we work to
promote the future of hunting and conservation. Today, I'm kind of trying to
get my brain recharged and recinct outof convention. I know we're still trying
to hard now just day the weekis it? And I don't know how
this works. But since we havetwo guests, do we charge the listeners
the same price or is it double? Do they get the same show for
(04:48):
the same amount of money. Well, what we'll do is we'll you can
mute one of our guests whenever theytalk, and then they'll have to pay
or subscribe and pay for the fullepisode. Yeah that's reasonable. Yeah,
it's like a lot of those guysthat have that pay for subscriptions, so
right for you get a part ofthe article the premiere. Yeah stuff,
So we'll do that. This iskidding folks anyway. So this week we've
(05:12):
got two representatives with us from theMidway USA Foundation, which Houston Sparkle Foundation
has worked with for years. SarahHall is a project and events manager for
the Midway USA Foundation, and DannyFerris is the marketing manager. Ladies,
thank you so much for joining us. Glad to be here. Thank you,
nice to be here. So whereare you guys located today? We
(05:33):
are in Columbia, Missouri, whichis the headquarters for our Midway USA Foundation.
Yep, been out there before.It's very cool. And you guys
actually have a had a decent collegefootball team this year out of Missouri.
I'll tell you a what. Dannyhere a Missouri girl through and through.
It was pretty dark and exciting towatch them beat Ohio State, so yeah,
(05:56):
we'll keep writing that way. Yeah, that was impressive to see.
I like the underdogs, and youknow they've been an underdog for a long
time. It's good to see thatprogram turn around. Absolutely, really is,
really is. So let's talk alittle bit. We've we've got about
three or four minutes in our firstsegment left, but let's talk a little
bit about Midway USA Foundation for thefolks who have no clue what that is.
(06:17):
Can you can? What did youkind of give us a little bit
of a background on the organization itself? Thanks? Sure, can. This
is Danny again as the marketing managerhere at the foundation, and really we're
here to fund youth to shooting sportsof all disciplines. We are a five
oh one C three and we provideendowment funds for approximately twenty eight hundred youth
(06:44):
shooting teams and about eighty state regionalnational organizations. And we do that through
a little cash grants to help thempay for expenses. That's awesome. And
I'm sure anybody who listens this showthat's got any history with the background world
as seeing the Potterfield commercials for MidwayUSA. And I just want to state
(07:06):
the obvious that the two are joinedat the hip and was started by Larry
and Brenda Potter Potterfield, correct,yes, correct, So this is Sarah
here You're absolutely right, Joe thatLarry and Brenda there are largest benefactors.
They started the foundation with the visionof being able to support you shooting sports
(07:28):
team all across the country. Theyrecognized that there was a gap in the
funding supplied to those teams versus say, like a high school football team,
and so we are the only organizationdoing what we do. We're proud to
get those cash grants out there intothe hands of the coaches and athletes that
can use them to go out andshoot more matches and get more rounds down
range. Awesome. I want todig into that a little bit further.
(07:51):
We're going to have to take abreak here. We'll be back with our
guests Sarah Hall and Danny Ferris withthe Midway USA Foundation. Right after this
break Hunting Matters a p r Cnine fifty, you know was wave.
(08:37):
Welcome back to Honeymatters on KPRC ninefifty. This is your host, Joe
Petorr, I am Ramon Robles.Joining us today is Sarah Hall and Danny
Ferris with the Midway USA Foundation.Thanks once again for joining us, folks.
Thank you. Before we forget,I want to give out your your
website It's Midway USA Foundation dot org. That is the website. They can
(08:58):
go learn more. Our listeners cango learn more a little bit about the
organization, Sarah, What do youdo specifically for Midway USA Foundation? Sure,
so, I think I might havethe best job at Midway you say
foundation. Actually, I get tohost all of our special events, which
(09:18):
are fundraisers for our teams and organizations. So this can include sporting places,
tournaments, or gun bills, uniqueexperiences with our sponsors. We do action
shooting. We've had camps where Olympicathletes were the training coaches. So just
a wide variety of things where weare encouraging teams to attend or have their
(09:39):
community support them to attend, andevery registration is a donation to their team
endowment account. So it keeps myjob exciting. Day to day is always
different. Right now, we areplanning for an April event in Texas.
We will be doing a blogger experience, so very exclusive VIP experience at Joshua
(10:01):
Creek Ranch. We're excited to bedown there. Also have the support of
Laws or one of our sponsors.Yeah, we worked with Jason and those
guys pretty closely as well. Haveyou been to Joshua Creek before. I
have not. I am really lookingforward to it. It's pretty cool.
It's it's a really neat setup.I've seen that place progress and get better
and better every year. And you'vegot a little bit of a background as
(10:22):
a as a scholar athlete as well, correct I do. I am Kingtim
Midway to State Foundation from a shootingsports background. So I started in a
four age club I was eight yearsold, you know, got the bugs
young for competitive shooting with something thatI got to do with my dad all
through high school and then ended upon the University of Kentucky Rifle Team Shopper,
an NCAA program in the Olympic styleof air rifle and small bore.
(10:46):
So was your dad a competitive shooter? How did you get into this?
No, he wasn't. I actuallyjust had a girlfriend who, you know,
her brother was getting into shooting.She said, I don't want to
be the only girl on the fourh team. I don't want to the
only one there, so come withme and I loved it and got hooked
and she ended up kind of phasingout after a couple of years. But
(11:07):
it was just something I did forfun and My dad wasn't a competitor,
but he got very involved and thenwas my coach. Took all of the
advanced training classes to you know,be an elite coach for me and make
sure I could get to that endsubla level. That's very cool, very
cool to be that discipline at thatyoung of an age to kind of go.
You know, I'm like, yeah, I'm looking for frogs and snails
(11:30):
and snakes and stuff. She's thinkingabout I think I'll be a competitive shooter.
Well, we know most men's men's, haven't you, The font nails
in their brains and the skulls don'tactually come together until about twenty five or
thirty anyway, So we know thatthat. I say that from myself and
having raised three boys. So Danny, you your job's a little bit different.
Tell us a little bit about whatyou do with the Midway USA Foundation,
(11:54):
of course. Well I worked veryclosely with Sarah w. We're a
very tight knit team here at foundationis about fifteen employees. I am the
marketing manager for Midway USA Foundation.So you know, all that information that
they can find on the website,I make sure that's up there, print
material communicating how we accomplish our missionto both the coaches and parents and partners
(12:18):
out there, as well as promotethe events that Sarah has going on and
really encouraging folks to support their youthshooting team through the Midway USA Foundation Endowment.
I mean, we're so unique thefact that we have thousands of endowments
that folks can just go to ourwebsite and find one near them. They
(12:39):
can search by zip code and findthat and donate directly to our website.
I kind of make sure all thatmakes sense to people, which we're again,
we're so unique. That can bea hard job, and I love
it, and I love the passionthat I see out there on a daily
basis from the coaches and athletes.Like Sharahan's was so so speaking, you
(13:03):
know, from an uneducated standpoint,you guys do team endowments, so you
do fundraising, you do additional adowments, grants and productrants and that sort of
thing. So how do you guys, I'm asking from the kind of the
micro level, how does a highschool team find you and vice versa to
start working together if it's a newprogram that's getting started or even you know,
(13:24):
I'm just trying to learn a littlebit more about how your process works.
How about how you guys directly interactwith these youth shooting teams. Absolutely,
I'm going to keep that question.This is Sarah or I was the
event manager is actually one of ourprogram managers. And our program managers they
are out there our booths on theground talking to teams to help educate them
on our programs. And so ifa team is interested in starting an endowment
(13:48):
at Midway of State Foundation, thebest resource is to get in contact with
our program managers. And like Dannymentioned, our website is very robust and
you can find their information, butthe process is very easy online applications that
we take your information to get anendowment started for you. You're notified once
it's open, so that way youcan start receiving donations directly to your team,
(14:09):
getting it out to your supporters.And then we also help you through
all of the different fundraising options wehave, because we have so many different
programs that can help you fundraise forthe endowment. And you mentioned our product
program, which not only goes towardsendowment funding, but helps with some cash
on hand so that you can havemoney for those operating expenses. As well.
(14:30):
So that's one of the first thingsI was exposed to when we first
started working with you guys. Soyou guys have relationships with manufacturers and you're
able to offer these teams firearms oroptics or whatever you know is kind of
the item of choice that year orthat period where they can get those items
from you and use those as fundraisers. Correct. Yes, we've got some
(14:54):
great support in the industry. Productsdonated to us or bonditted discounts that we
can offer at as our product,grants or fundraising product, and those are
available to all of the teams andorganizations that have endowments with us to use
in any type of fundraiser that worksin their community. Because every team is
different, we have teams and alsoif the states, all different sizes and
(15:15):
all different disciplines and affiliations, soyou can fundraise however you want with our
products, and then at the completionof your fundraiser, make a donation to
your endowment account, so the productis never purchased. They are provided to
the team for free, and thenthe donation goes into the endowment account,
which is matched as a completion,so it doesn't ever across the bottom line
(15:35):
of that team's budget for the year. I think it's also in some sorts
as is Danny. I just wantedto add, you know, also,
these great companies that support us,their products are getting in the hands of
these youth selling tickets or having araffle or a banquet, and so it's
really great for these industry sponsors thatare helping us out because as we're sending
(16:00):
their products all across the country,and the fact that the money these teams
are raised and what they donate totheir adowment is also matched one to one
is just it's unbelievable that you canreceive a product from industry support, go
to the fundraise or however you wantto do, like Sarah mentioned, and
(16:21):
then will donate those efforts, andif you make extra that you don't donate,
you get to keep that for expensesyou have right now. It's just
really really a win win situation.And you kind of alluded to it earlier,
but explain that the because I thinkI don't think you guys take enough
credit forward, but explain that oneto one match donation match. Yeah,
(16:41):
so you mentioned Larry and Brenda Potterfieldearlier, who we can't take enough because
they're the reason the foundation exists,because they have such a commitment and a
passion for youth shooting sports and thefuture of this great sport. They personally
provide US funds to match every donationthat comes in here dollar per dollar.
(17:07):
Again, it's just it's almost unheardof. Yea. They helped us raise
over half a million dollars on GettingTuesday, just because you know, a
big part of it is that matchis just so attractive. So they are
the reason we're able to match dollarper dollar and we're really lucky. How
many students how many students would youguys? You guys say you affect positively
in a year for example? Ohwow, there's probably a big number a
(17:33):
week. Ma I know, marketingand events year. We don't do the
math part, but twenty eight hundredteams that we work with, so I
mean, I don't know if anaverage team size has thirty five forty people
on it whatever the thirty five what'sthat map? Eight thousand, ninety eight
thousand we like around up marketing,So one hundred thousand you out there are
(17:56):
receiving funds from us. You know, there's big team, small team.
It varies, but thousands and thousandsof kids take advantage of this program,
and there's probably a lot of themthat frankly wouldn't be able to compete and
be part of the team if theydidn't have that cash grant coming to them
to help offset expenses. And I'msure parents would not not as well.
(18:22):
Yeah, we'll talk about that hereon the other side, about the cost
of the competing, that sort ofthing. Taking a break here on Hunting
Matters KPRC nine fift We'll be backafter the breaks. Mounts all Almens,
(19:47):
Welcome back to Honey Matters on kpr C nine fifty. This is your
host, Jovie Ramon Robs. Whatare you laughing at? El Bona would
never get to the chorus, youknow, you like to let it build
a little, you know, untilyou do these shows, these podcasts and
you're act working on a time schedule, you don't realize how long some of
the yeah, like get to thepoint. Yeah, yeah, that's one
eighth of our segmentary. All right, back with Honeymatters on KPRC nine to
(20:08):
fifty. Joining us today as SarahHall and Danny Ferris. Sarah is the
project and events manager and Danny isthe marketing manager with Midway USA Foundation.
Thanks so much for joining us onceagain. Happy to be here, Thanks
for having us. All Right,here's a question I ask all of our
guests every week. Don't think y'allare any more special, But what is
the largest animal you think you couldtake down with your bare hands? Oh?
(20:34):
I don't know. I think thatin comparison, Danny's going to take
down a larger animal than me.I just think she's a little bit fiightier,
so I will let her pick heranimal. Oh, set me up.
I think we take turns on beingfight see you and I Sarah?
Wow, Wait, let's unpack that. I think the guys in the office
(20:59):
would would be agreeing. We thinkwe never plan long meetings around lunch because
we both get angry. So Iguess that we were the animal we might
take down only And yeah, myfive year old daughter has a small,
brand new kitten at home, andmy hands are all crashed up, so
I can't probably take anything bigger thanthat twelve week old kitten. I think,
(21:19):
Yeah, I could say raccoon orlike a little baby deer in the
yard. It's just nicer than araccoon. Yeah, I'm about there with
you that there would have to beinebriated, but otherwise I think I could
That's about as big as I couldgo to. Yeah, fun and Sarah,
are you still a decent shot?Has any of that fallen off?
(21:44):
Are you still pretty good? Youknow? I have two young kids at
home, and my husband is ashooting athlete, and so I get to
spend a lot of my time asa cheerleader for others right now. But
I feel like I could probably takeit back up pretty quick. I want
to say it's going to be likeriding a bike, and I hope that
when my kids are older, I'llget to spend a lot more time out
on the range. Yeah, I'mI'm guessing she's perficient enough that her husband
(22:08):
doesn't want to cast aside eye ather. I keep them in live,
Yeah, as you should. I'mintimidated. I want to go back to
that comment that made earlier about whichone is the is the Yeah, we'd
(22:30):
have to add to the podcast.I think, yeah, get some get
some outside contribution there. My wifewill probably have the same same, uh
different viewpoint as well. So wewere talking before the break, So you
guys basically helped to help to getabout ninety eight thousand kids active and or
(22:51):
continually involved in the shooting sports.I'm just curious, Well, that opens
up a whole bunch of questions tome. But one one of the things,
one of the things that I'm curiousto know is are you guys seeing
an increase, a stagnation, ordecrease in the number of students participating in
(23:11):
you shooting sports. You know,it's really hard for us to answer because
we see it more on a dollarside with our grants going out the door.
So you know, we're getting moreand more money out the door every
year. Just in twenty twenty threealone, we had over eight million dollars
go out to all those respective teamendowments that we have, and so that
(23:33):
continues to increase. We keep seeingit an increase in the number of teams
requesting grants and the amount of moneygoing out the door. And so I
think that is showing a trend forthe positive. Yeah. Yeah, And
people don't realize, you know,it's like anything else, whether your kids
in tennis or soccer or whatever,it's expensive for kids to be involved in
sports. And you know, youlook at this where they have to pay
(23:55):
entry fees and you know, theammunition and shotguns and all the things that
it can be a very very expensivesport. Yeah. We always asked our
grant recipients what they have as ourhighest expense, and ammunition always comes out
on top, and then entry feesis usually second. So sports, that's
(24:15):
very true. Yep, following travelthey you know, they go around to
different competitions, So I think thoseare the top three. Ammunition, entry
fees, and travels seem to consistentlybe at the top of those expenses.
Yeah. Yeah, it's you know, I didn't realize how big shootings,
how big of a thing shooting sportswas, and especially the U sportings youth
(24:36):
shooting sports teams were until I movedto Houston, I guess around eleven years
ago, you know. And uh, I've lived in San Antonio for a
few years now. They've got theNational Shooting Complex there. But you know,
the big thing in San Antonio waslet's all go to the golf course,
which I didn't do because I'm nota golfer. But you move here
and it's like, hey, there'sanother clay shoot this weekend or something.
You're going to go whatever. Andyou know, I've had been lucky and
(24:57):
blessed to be exposed to these Ushooting tames. These kids come out and
almost to a person, uh,men, young men and young women,
they come out. They are polite. And I'm not I'm not, you
know, discrediting any young adult outthere listening, but I find I find
that these these kids that come out, I call them kids because I'm an
(25:17):
old man. They come out onthese teams and they compete in these events,
and they they participated in our annualSporting Place tournament too, and they're
polite, they're well behaved, veryrespectful, of course, you know,
a keen eye for safety. ButI just you know, I just always
find these kids to be of adifferent ilk, if you will, uh,
than than some than some I runinto. So I know this is
(25:41):
Danny, and I couldn't agree more. You know, you didn't grow up
with the range like Sarah did.But I've been in the industry now,
uh just over ten years, andI have the same impression as I started
going to these large national shoots ofthe youth participating extremely respectful. Yes ma'am
know, sir, thank you please. It was very very refreshing and just
(26:07):
just reiterated why you know I cometo work every day. Yeah, yeah,
it's it's uh, it's to thepoint now where I don't even think
about it. I just expect thesekids to show up and just be,
you know, top of their game. And they and then they always are.
They never disappoint Just one of theother things too, that always impressed
me about your organization. You guysregularly, I don't know if it's a
yearly or twice a year, youregularly hold what I would call summits with
(26:32):
your coaches and or your teams andpeople to talk about fundraising, to talk
about fundraising, guidance and that sortof thing. That's that's something that a
lot of people don't do. It'sit's more of a transactional thing. Here's
some money, here's here, youknow, here's what you got, and
here's what you can get you andfill out these forms and get up.
But you guys have a very handson approach with these with these teams and
these programs we do. Our programmanagers are are great out there in the
(26:56):
field, attending not only national competitionsand you know, or small ones,
but also coaches meetings, that aregoing on so that we can really educate
coaches on how to utilize our program. And then annually midway I think foundation
hosts a national Youth Shooting Sports conferencefor our organizational agency endowment accounts in those
larger state and national organizations and howthey're helping to fund raise with teams.
(27:19):
So we're trying to be as impactfulas we can out in the industry and
out with our teams to make surethat everyone is utilizing us as much as
possible. You know, our goalis to get the grant out the door
to these teams. Yeah and yeah, y'all do a fabulous job of that.
And it's to your credit. Imean, you don't. You don't
walk around and pound your chest aboutit. I don't think that that's one
(27:41):
of the reasons. So I wasexcited to have you guys on is is.
I wanted to, you know,to publicize the good works that you
guys do, because you don't.You don't just you don't waigh that flag
going look at all the great stuffwe're doing. You just do it,
which is I think is one ofthe coolest aspects about how you guys do
it. Do uh do your job? And what you're doing for these for
these people, know, these studentsbasically of the stage all across the United
(28:03):
States. I appreciate that. Ithink that we we do. You know,
we are a small that mighty staffand we really have a lot of
work to do and we take itserious because we know they rely on the
funding. So I think that's what, you know, we just kind of
put our heads down in to yourpoint, just just keep doing what we
(28:23):
got to do to accomplish the mission. And we know that really, I
mean, yeah, I appreciate whatwe do. We do great things,
but to be honest, as volunteerson the ground levels that are coaching the
teams and taking time away from homeand getting these kids to competitions and showing
up the practice every day when theyhave a to do list a mile a
(28:44):
long, they're the ones that arereally doing the hard work. Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely, Volunteers always makeit happen. Okay, we're going to
take a quick break here heading intoour final segment where you're joined today with
Sarah by Sarah Hall, project andevents manager, and Danny Ferris, the
marketing manager with Mindweight USA Foundation.Check out their website at midway USA Foundation
dot org. We will see youon the other side of the break.
(29:06):
Honeymatters, KPRC nine fifty. Welcomeback Honeymatters and KPRC nine fifty. This
(29:56):
is your host, Joe Bitar,I am Ramon Robeless. Joining us today
is Sarah Hall and Danny Ferris withthe Midway USA Foundation. Thank you guys
once again for joining us. Thankyou very happy to be here. All
right, I feel I have topreface this every time I ask these questions
to women, because I just feellike I do. I asked this to
everybody that comes on the show.If a VIP were coming into town and
(30:18):
you had to make one dish,what would it be? Oh my,
I don't claim to be much ofa chef at all. What would you
bake? Could you do anything?Or would you drag us if ramone's talking
about himself be in the Vampire orwould you drag us to a favorite local
restaurant. I was going to say, if you're going to ask the restaurant
(30:41):
question, Danny here again, that'smy goat too. I can tell you
all the great local restaurants we liketo jug that Danny kind of moonlights for
the Chamber of commerce around here atColumbia. All the places to go,
did you guys just picture? Doyou guys watch? Did you got to
(31:02):
see Ted Lasso? Yeah? So, what's your name? Was? At
one time in her past career wasthe videotape host and all the hotels Welcome
to Wittenburg or wherever she wants.I watched the show Jaylee. Hey,
let's just blow off this last segmentand talk about Ted last. We could
talk about Ted last their for hours. That's great, all right? So
(31:27):
okay, well, y'all kind ofwiga. Y'all's way out of that out
of answering. But I'll make iteasy. If if I was going to
go to Columbia, where would Iwant to go? Take the vap to
eat? Well, if you wantto go to stake, you got to
go to CC's spell that for me, yeah, right, for that's pizza
(31:52):
chain. Okay, all right,I'm looking at it City Broiler. Yeah,
I'm looking right at that. Okay, all right. The service is
fantastic. And then the probably thesecond one I have to recommend is Murray's.
Murray's Staple was just wonderful. Anythingyou get, you'll you'll appreciate.
(32:14):
The second that good. I thinkI've actually eaten at Murray's one time.
When I was there, I didn'tperfect. I didn't realize that Columbia was
right smack in the middle between KansasCity and Saint Louis, right in the
middle. We are Yeah, wow, Okay. In Kansas City in itself
(32:34):
is just an ENDINGGMA. Is itMissouri or is it Kansas. It's just
it's always boggled my mind. Don'tpay attention to I'm just a moment.
I saw an image the other dayof a comediator someone putting on a show
in Kansas City. It was feelingtons of things served to me for Kansas
(32:57):
City, being a chief fan,and it as someone probably going out on
one of the stages at one ofthe big Sprint Center t mobile and it's
had a sign you are in Missouri, not Kansas. That's up a lot.
Yeah, that's hilarious. Go ahead, No, I was just going
to talk about, you know,we were talking about programs and endowments things
(33:19):
before you know there you'd mentioned onduring the break that they're like one hundred
and almost two hundred Texas teams thatare with an adowment have an endowment with
you guys, Yes, that iscorrect. You can actually go on our
site into first by state and Inoticed there are one hundred and ninety eight
Texas youth shooting teams that have anendownment with us. That's awesome good.
(33:42):
And then of course Houston's Spark ClubFoundation works with you guys on the endowment
program as well. Yes, Ido, absolutely, and you know that
endowment has over a million dollars init. So He's Houston Safari Club Foundation
has received over three hundred and twentythousand dollars in grants from Midway Estate Foundation.
And if I'm not mistaken, thathelps fun annually use wildlife conservation experience
(34:04):
with some other youth team events thatyou guys handled right right, absolutely,
and we we really you know,appreciate and enjoy that relationship being able to
fund and support these local teams.And we're we're I actually asked you the
question earlier. Is this sport growingor stagnant or whatever? I actually see
more grant requests coming in every yearfrom FFA teams, for h teams and
(34:24):
these other high school teams that arethat are needing funding and support. And
now you know some of these teamshave actually been around so on. Now
they're like, we need to upgradeour facilities and our and our targets and
and throwing equipment, that sort ofthing. So we're, yeah, it's
it's that's always when when a grantrequest comes to us for one of those,
it's always a no brainer. Ittypically just gets pushed right through.
(34:44):
Yep, high school team needs shooting, new uniforms, whatever. Yet we're
gonna do it. You know thatbusiness dandy here That makes me think of
how we just recently adapted to somerequests. It. We do see this
growing and we're offering these team catchgrants to these organizational catch brands, and
(35:06):
we thought, what else do weneed to grow the sport? And two
things came up, and that wastrained coaches and improved ranges. So we
now offer coach training grants and rangedevelopment grants, and those two programs have
gone really, really well, andthey've gotten a lot of attention, the
(35:27):
attention of some folks that maybe didn'tknow that before, because we're better in
rangers out there too, because morekids are coming to shoot and we want
even more on these ranges. Yeah, you don't think about that. I
mean in some of these places.It's like when I was in high school,
we didn't have we we used thelocal, local municipal football field.
We were a small school, andyou know, eventually we got our own
(35:50):
stadium, but built around stadium.But these kids are in the same boat,
and you know, these these rangemanagement programs and these range building programs
are vital to getting new programs startedor supporting as it already currently exists.
Can private donors support this? Iknow, I know you guys work with
a lot of industry partners and thatsort of thing. But what if I'm
a guy who just wants to writea check and support the program? Yeah?
(36:10):
Absolutely, that web page that Dannymentioned where you can search all of
the teams in your state or byzip code, anything like that, you
can donate directly through our website tothe endowment of your choice, and that
donation is matched one to one.And then, of course, you know,
if you want to write a checkand mail it here, that information
available on our website. We matchedall of those donations one to one,
(36:34):
and we put one hundred percent ofthat donation into the Endowment of Toys.
We don't pull anything out for operating. Another aspect that makes us pretty unique
and that one hundred percent of yourdonation goes to endowment of your choice full
amount match one to one. AndI do want to point out again and
remind folks that are listening that inMidway USA Foundation is a five O one
C three public charity as well,and you can check out their website at
(36:57):
Midway USA Foundation dot org. I'mgonna ask each of you this question.
I'll start you with Sarah. Withyou first, what's the what's the most
favorite part of your job? AndI like every part of this domule coming
from sports background, getting to staywithin this industry and be out on the
range still, I love that Ithink that shooting athletes and their coaches are
(37:20):
some of the best people out there, so getting to interact with them kind
of the highlight of my day.And then, you know, just my
skill set, my weirdness that allcomes together make this more perfect as I
love the organization and keeping logistics ontrack, and so getting to partner my
passion with things that also work wellin business becomes kind of my dream job.
(37:43):
I guess I could say, soeverything can I answer? Everything?
Sniggled out? I whiggled out itout, but I knew. It's I
get interacting with the coaches that areout there. It's probably my favorite part.
And that was Danny. Sorry sorrythat with Sarah. Sarah and Danny
email Danny, do you have anythingaside from what Sarah had that kind of
(38:04):
jumps out at you that you knowmakes you get up and go every day?
Well? I got lucky enough whenSarah became a manager to get to
go to several events with her.And I was used to just being in
the office and working on making printmaterial and writing emails and going to these
events. When I see a coachor a volunteer, when it clicks what
(38:27):
these endowments do and the potential youhave of your you're in control of your
own endowment, and the light bulbcomes on. The next thing I know,
these coaches are having fundraisers and they'redonation after donations coming in for their
endowment and they're pulling agreeant. Thatis really really cool to see them in
person and see the light bulb comeon. And then they go to work
(38:51):
in their community and next thing youknow, they have one hundred thousand dollars
in their endowment and they're to actuallysee that and not just you know process
and grants right, So awesome,so awesome. Well, thank you both
for joining us today. We areout of time. We will see everyone
next week here on Hunting Matters kpr C nine fifteen
Tradition, conservation, family, theoutdoors. It matters to you, it
matters to us. This is HuntingMatters, presented by Houston Safari Club Foundation.
Here's Joe Bitar. We made it. We survived another convention. Congratulations,
(00:23):
you looked a little warren hard andput up wet. Yeah. But
otherwise, I'm you're here. I'mgonna go have a uh, I'm gonna
go get a botox and botox injectionsinder my eyes. Yeah. Either that
or I don't know, I gottado something. Man. How much alcohol
was consumed? Not none by me? I didn't have a guess. No,
I can barely have time to eat. Yeah, but I'm sure there
(00:46):
was quite a bit consumed. Imean I saw the bartenders and waitresses very
busy. But everybody had a goodtime. Everybody had a good time.
Yeah, a good time. Weraised a lot of money. We're still
we're still reconciling the books. Buthad a great turnout, sold out all
exhibit spaces. The bankers were prettybusy, and yep, everybody's that you
did pass it. Now we're planningfor next year. I was just gonna
say, when's the next year?Do you have a date yeah, uh
(01:08):
the uh whatever that's it is?I mean, but you do have a
date. Yeah, I think it'sa twenty first, twenty second next year.
Okay, we're already booked. We'realready booked for next year. So
yeah, we're we're already having conversationsand meetings talking about next year, which
we were actually doing on the floorthere. We're well start talking about next
year. We didn't talk about thisbefore the show started this morning, but
I just wanted to let you knowthat I am officially taking my name out
(01:30):
of MC in next year an MC. Yeah you don't want MC. I
don't want M, so don't eventalk about it. I'm knocking on this
door. Okay, yeah, Iget it. I know you are.
Or do you want to be likethat? We couldn't afford you anyway.
Well, no, that's true.And uh, last time I am C,
I caused a fire and uh anold lady broker a hip. Oh
(01:53):
so I think I'm cursed. Yeah, well we'll pass then, Yeah,
you just come sit bid on stuff. I would. I think I've been
to one. I've been to theexpo, but I've never been to the
banquet. You need to come halfof the reason was because of the security
issue with me and the other reasonthis year I had to go to mar
A Lago and hang out with theformer president Trump. How is mister Trump
(02:15):
again? He was high spirits.Now ironically coincidentally, I guess, not
ironically coincidentally. The day we werethere was the day he was putting his
mother in law to rest, justpassed, and they were literally, Joe,
I'm using the word literally in thecorrect context. They were literally right
next door at the church to wherewe were at the hotel at the breakers,
(02:37):
they were right next door. There'sTrump. We didn't see him,
but there was the procession and therewere the people filing in. And so
that night at dinner at mar Lagowe didn't see him there, which we
didn't suspect we would. But thenext day, sitting out on the patio
at mar A Lago, secret Servicewalks out, so you know, okay,
yeah, Grande's coming. He's friey. How's it going, How you
(02:59):
doing. It's good to see ya, But he's walking, He's got places
to be. He was literally jumpingon the helicopter to go to New Hampshire
that night. That's cool, Yeah, for the primary cool or for yeah,
whatever it was. But yeah,I mean it's neat, you know,
and I'm a fan of Trump.But even if I wasn't, just
the fact that this is a presidentof the United States, a former president.
It's just the position, the youknow, the office. It's just
(03:21):
really cool. That is cool.And you got to state at the Breakers,
I stayed at the Breakers, stayedthere before. It's a great hotel.
I was. I was way overmy head there. Boy, yeah,
I wanted that sales war trip.And we went and stayed in the
Breakers for a week and didn't wentfishing and stuff. Way back twenty years
ago or so. It hasn't changed. Probably, no, I mean they
remember your name, mister Rood tosee mister hey, mister Robos, how
(03:42):
are you, miss rob fantastic.They never called me mister Robos. Oh
well, that's that's unfortunate. Beforewe knew each other. All right,
folks, Houston's Fark Club Foundation hassome cool stuff coming up. We just
will still do stuff. We stilldo stuff. February seventeenth, we're having
the European style Tower Pheasant Shoot.We're gonna be talking a little about shooting
today and then on February twenty fourth, we are doing a volunteer day out
(04:03):
on the Katie Prairie with the CoastalPrairie Conservancy. I know where that is.
Yeah, you should come. Bringthe boys. They can plant some
plants and throw rocks. Can weshoot some of the birds? No,
No, we're just gonna eat them. We're gonna be planting, planting stuff
and cleaning up and stuff. That'sFebruary twenty fourth, So go to we
we give dot org, click onthe membership drop down and see all the
monthly events. You do not haveto be a member to participate. We'd
(04:25):
love for you to join and becomepart of our organization as we work to
promote the future of hunting and conservation. Today, I'm kind of trying to
get my brain recharged and recinct outof convention. I know we're still trying
to hard now just day the weekis it? And I don't know how
this works. But since we havetwo guests, do we charge the listeners
the same price or is it double? Do they get the same show for
(04:48):
the same amount of money. Well, what we'll do is we'll you can
mute one of our guests whenever theytalk, and then they'll have to pay
or subscribe and pay for the fullepisode. Yeah that's reasonable. Yeah,
it's like a lot of those guysthat have that pay for subscriptions, so
right for you get a part ofthe article the premiere. Yeah stuff,
So we'll do that. This iskidding folks anyway. So this week we've
(05:12):
got two representatives with us from theMidway USA Foundation, which Houston Sparkle Foundation
has worked with for years. SarahHall is a project and events manager for
the Midway USA Foundation, and DannyFerris is the marketing manager. Ladies,
thank you so much for joining us. Glad to be here. Thank you,
nice to be here. So whereare you guys located today? We
(05:33):
are in Columbia, Missouri, whichis the headquarters for our Midway USA Foundation.
Yep, been out there before.It's very cool. And you guys
actually have a had a decent collegefootball team this year out of Missouri.
I'll tell you a what. Dannyhere a Missouri girl through and through.
It was pretty dark and exciting towatch them beat Ohio State, so yeah,
(05:56):
we'll keep writing that way. Yeah, that was impressive to see.
I like the underdogs, and youknow they've been an underdog for a long
time. It's good to see thatprogram turn around. Absolutely, really is,
really is. So let's talk alittle bit. We've we've got about
three or four minutes in our firstsegment left, but let's talk a little
bit about Midway USA Foundation for thefolks who have no clue what that is.
(06:17):
Can you can? What did youkind of give us a little bit
of a background on the organization itself? Thanks? Sure, can. This
is Danny again as the marketing managerhere at the foundation, and really we're
here to fund youth to shooting sportsof all disciplines. We are a five
oh one C three and we provideendowment funds for approximately twenty eight hundred youth
(06:44):
shooting teams and about eighty state regionalnational organizations. And we do that through
a little cash grants to help thempay for expenses. That's awesome. And
I'm sure anybody who listens this showthat's got any history with the background world
as seeing the Potterfield commercials for MidwayUSA. And I just want to state
(07:06):
the obvious that the two are joinedat the hip and was started by Larry
and Brenda Potter Potterfield, correct,yes, correct, So this is Sarah
here You're absolutely right, Joe thatLarry and Brenda there are largest benefactors.
They started the foundation with the visionof being able to support you shooting sports
(07:28):
team all across the country. Theyrecognized that there was a gap in the
funding supplied to those teams versus say, like a high school football team,
and so we are the only organizationdoing what we do. We're proud to
get those cash grants out there intothe hands of the coaches and athletes that
can use them to go out andshoot more matches and get more rounds down
range. Awesome. I want todig into that a little bit further.
(07:51):
We're going to have to take abreak here. We'll be back with our
guests Sarah Hall and Danny Ferris withthe Midway USA Foundation. Right after this
break Hunting Matters a p r Cnine fifty, you know was wave.
(08:37):
Welcome back to Honeymatters on KPRC ninefifty. This is your host, Joe
Petorr, I am Ramon Robles.Joining us today is Sarah Hall and Danny
Ferris with the Midway USA Foundation.Thanks once again for joining us, folks.
Thank you. Before we forget,I want to give out your your
website It's Midway USA Foundation dot org. That is the website. They can
(08:58):
go learn more. Our listeners cango learn more a little bit about the
organization, Sarah, What do youdo specifically for Midway USA Foundation? Sure,
so, I think I might havethe best job at Midway you say
foundation. Actually, I get tohost all of our special events, which
(09:18):
are fundraisers for our teams and organizations. So this can include sporting places,
tournaments, or gun bills, uniqueexperiences with our sponsors. We do action
shooting. We've had camps where Olympicathletes were the training coaches. So just
a wide variety of things where weare encouraging teams to attend or have their
(09:39):
community support them to attend, andevery registration is a donation to their team
endowment account. So it keeps myjob exciting. Day to day is always
different. Right now, we areplanning for an April event in Texas.
We will be doing a blogger experience, so very exclusive VIP experience at Joshua
(10:01):
Creek Ranch. We're excited to bedown there. Also have the support of
Laws or one of our sponsors.Yeah, we worked with Jason and those
guys pretty closely as well. Haveyou been to Joshua Creek before. I
have not. I am really lookingforward to it. It's pretty cool.
It's it's a really neat setup.I've seen that place progress and get better
and better every year. And you'vegot a little bit of a background as
(10:22):
a as a scholar athlete as well, correct I do. I am Kingtim
Midway to State Foundation from a shootingsports background. So I started in a
four age club I was eight yearsold, you know, got the bugs
young for competitive shooting with something thatI got to do with my dad all
through high school and then ended upon the University of Kentucky Rifle Team Shopper,
an NCAA program in the Olympic styleof air rifle and small bore.
(10:46):
So was your dad a competitive shooter? How did you get into this?
No, he wasn't. I actuallyjust had a girlfriend who, you know,
her brother was getting into shooting.She said, I don't want to
be the only girl on the fourh team. I don't want to the
only one there, so come withme and I loved it and got hooked
and she ended up kind of phasingout after a couple of years. But
(11:07):
it was just something I did forfun and My dad wasn't a competitor,
but he got very involved and thenwas my coach. Took all of the
advanced training classes to you know,be an elite coach for me and make
sure I could get to that endsubla level. That's very cool, very
cool to be that discipline at thatyoung of an age to kind of go.
You know, I'm like, yeah, I'm looking for frogs and snails
(11:30):
and snakes and stuff. She's thinkingabout I think I'll be a competitive shooter.
Well, we know most men's men's, haven't you, The font nails
in their brains and the skulls don'tactually come together until about twenty five or
thirty anyway, So we know thatthat. I say that from myself and
having raised three boys. So Danny, you your job's a little bit different.
Tell us a little bit about whatyou do with the Midway USA Foundation,
(11:54):
of course. Well I worked veryclosely with Sarah w. We're a
very tight knit team here at foundationis about fifteen employees. I am the
marketing manager for Midway USA Foundation.So you know, all that information that
they can find on the website,I make sure that's up there, print
material communicating how we accomplish our missionto both the coaches and parents and partners
(12:18):
out there, as well as promotethe events that Sarah has going on and
really encouraging folks to support their youthshooting team through the Midway USA Foundation Endowment.
I mean, we're so unique thefact that we have thousands of endowments
that folks can just go to ourwebsite and find one near them. They
(12:39):
can search by zip code and findthat and donate directly to our website.
I kind of make sure all thatmakes sense to people, which we're again,
we're so unique. That can bea hard job, and I love
it, and I love the passionthat I see out there on a daily
basis from the coaches and athletes.Like Sharahan's was so so speaking, you
(13:03):
know, from an uneducated standpoint,you guys do team endowments, so you
do fundraising, you do additional adowments, grants and productrants and that sort of
thing. So how do you guys, I'm asking from the kind of the
micro level, how does a highschool team find you and vice versa to
start working together if it's a newprogram that's getting started or even you know,
(13:24):
I'm just trying to learn a littlebit more about how your process works.
How about how you guys directly interactwith these youth shooting teams. Absolutely,
I'm going to keep that question.This is Sarah or I was the
event manager is actually one of ourprogram managers. And our program managers they
are out there our booths on theground talking to teams to help educate them
on our programs. And so ifa team is interested in starting an endowment
(13:48):
at Midway of State Foundation, thebest resource is to get in contact with
our program managers. And like Dannymentioned, our website is very robust and
you can find their information, butthe process is very easy online applications that
we take your information to get anendowment started for you. You're notified once
it's open, so that way youcan start receiving donations directly to your team,
(14:09):
getting it out to your supporters.And then we also help you through
all of the different fundraising options wehave, because we have so many different
programs that can help you fundraise forthe endowment. And you mentioned our product
program, which not only goes towardsendowment funding, but helps with some cash
on hand so that you can havemoney for those operating expenses. As well.
(14:30):
So that's one of the first thingsI was exposed to when we first
started working with you guys. Soyou guys have relationships with manufacturers and you're
able to offer these teams firearms oroptics or whatever you know is kind of
the item of choice that year orthat period where they can get those items
from you and use those as fundraisers. Correct. Yes, we've got some
(14:54):
great support in the industry. Productsdonated to us or bonditted discounts that we
can offer at as our product,grants or fundraising product, and those are
available to all of the teams andorganizations that have endowments with us to use
in any type of fundraiser that worksin their community. Because every team is
different, we have teams and alsoif the states, all different sizes and
(15:15):
all different disciplines and affiliations, soyou can fundraise however you want with our
products, and then at the completionof your fundraiser, make a donation to
your endowment account, so the productis never purchased. They are provided to
the team for free, and thenthe donation goes into the endowment account,
which is matched as a completion,so it doesn't ever across the bottom line
(15:35):
of that team's budget for the year. I think it's also in some sorts
as is Danny. I just wantedto add, you know, also,
these great companies that support us,their products are getting in the hands of
these youth selling tickets or having araffle or a banquet, and so it's
really great for these industry sponsors thatare helping us out because as we're sending
(16:00):
their products all across the country,and the fact that the money these teams
are raised and what they donate totheir adowment is also matched one to one
is just it's unbelievable that you canreceive a product from industry support, go
to the fundraise or however you wantto do, like Sarah mentioned, and
(16:21):
then will donate those efforts, andif you make extra that you don't donate,
you get to keep that for expensesyou have right now. It's just
really really a win win situation.And you kind of alluded to it earlier,
but explain that the because I thinkI don't think you guys take enough
credit forward, but explain that oneto one match donation match. Yeah,
(16:41):
so you mentioned Larry and Brenda Potterfieldearlier, who we can't take enough because
they're the reason the foundation exists,because they have such a commitment and a
passion for youth shooting sports and thefuture of this great sport. They personally
provide US funds to match every donationthat comes in here dollar per dollar.
(17:07):
Again, it's just it's almost unheardof. Yea. They helped us raise
over half a million dollars on GettingTuesday, just because you know, a
big part of it is that matchis just so attractive. So they are
the reason we're able to match dollarper dollar and we're really lucky. How
many students how many students would youguys? You guys say you affect positively
in a year for example? Ohwow, there's probably a big number a
(17:33):
week. Ma I know, marketingand events year. We don't do the
math part, but twenty eight hundredteams that we work with, so I
mean, I don't know if anaverage team size has thirty five forty people
on it whatever the thirty five what'sthat map? Eight thousand, ninety eight
thousand we like around up marketing,So one hundred thousand you out there are
(17:56):
receiving funds from us. You know, there's big team, small team.
It varies, but thousands and thousandsof kids take advantage of this program,
and there's probably a lot of themthat frankly wouldn't be able to compete and
be part of the team if theydidn't have that cash grant coming to them
to help offset expenses. And I'msure parents would not not as well.
(18:22):
Yeah, we'll talk about that hereon the other side, about the cost
of the competing, that sort ofthing. Taking a break here on Hunting
Matters KPRC nine fift We'll be backafter the breaks. Mounts all Almens,
(19:47):
Welcome back to Honey Matters on kpr C nine fifty. This is your
host, Jovie Ramon Robs. Whatare you laughing at? El Bona would
never get to the chorus, youknow, you like to let it build
a little, you know, untilyou do these shows, these podcasts and
you're act working on a time schedule, you don't realize how long some of
the yeah, like get to thepoint. Yeah, yeah, that's one
eighth of our segmentary. All right, back with Honeymatters on KPRC nine to
(20:08):
fifty. Joining us today as SarahHall and Danny Ferris. Sarah is the
project and events manager and Danny isthe marketing manager with Midway USA Foundation.
Thanks so much for joining us onceagain. Happy to be here, Thanks
for having us. All Right,here's a question I ask all of our
guests every week. Don't think y'allare any more special, But what is
the largest animal you think you couldtake down with your bare hands? Oh?
(20:34):
I don't know. I think thatin comparison, Danny's going to take
down a larger animal than me.I just think she's a little bit fiightier,
so I will let her pick heranimal. Oh, set me up.
I think we take turns on beingfight see you and I Sarah?
Wow, Wait, let's unpack that. I think the guys in the office
(20:59):
would would be agreeing. We thinkwe never plan long meetings around lunch because
we both get angry. So Iguess that we were the animal we might
take down only And yeah, myfive year old daughter has a small,
brand new kitten at home, andmy hands are all crashed up, so
I can't probably take anything bigger thanthat twelve week old kitten. I think,
(21:19):
Yeah, I could say raccoon orlike a little baby deer in the
yard. It's just nicer than araccoon. Yeah, I'm about there with
you that there would have to beinebriated, but otherwise I think I could
That's about as big as I couldgo to. Yeah, fun and Sarah,
are you still a decent shot?Has any of that fallen off?
(21:44):
Are you still pretty good? Youknow? I have two young kids at
home, and my husband is ashooting athlete, and so I get to
spend a lot of my time asa cheerleader for others right now. But
I feel like I could probably takeit back up pretty quick. I want
to say it's going to be likeriding a bike, and I hope that
when my kids are older, I'llget to spend a lot more time out
on the range. Yeah, I'mI'm guessing she's perficient enough that her husband
(22:08):
doesn't want to cast aside eye ather. I keep them in live,
Yeah, as you should. I'mintimidated. I want to go back to
that comment that made earlier about whichone is the is the Yeah, we'd
(22:30):
have to add to the podcast.I think, yeah, get some get
some outside contribution there. My wifewill probably have the same same, uh
different viewpoint as well. So wewere talking before the break, So you
guys basically helped to help to getabout ninety eight thousand kids active and or
(22:51):
continually involved in the shooting sports.I'm just curious, Well, that opens
up a whole bunch of questions tome. But one one of the things,
one of the things that I'm curiousto know is are you guys seeing
an increase, a stagnation, ordecrease in the number of students participating in
(23:11):
you shooting sports. You know,it's really hard for us to answer because
we see it more on a dollarside with our grants going out the door.
So you know, we're getting moreand more money out the door every
year. Just in twenty twenty threealone, we had over eight million dollars
go out to all those respective teamendowments that we have, and so that
(23:33):
continues to increase. We keep seeingit an increase in the number of teams
requesting grants and the amount of moneygoing out the door. And so I
think that is showing a trend forthe positive. Yeah. Yeah, And
people don't realize, you know,it's like anything else, whether your kids
in tennis or soccer or whatever,it's expensive for kids to be involved in
sports. And you know, youlook at this where they have to pay
(23:55):
entry fees and you know, theammunition and shotguns and all the things that
it can be a very very expensivesport. Yeah. We always asked our
grant recipients what they have as ourhighest expense, and ammunition always comes out
on top, and then entry feesis usually second. So sports, that's
(24:15):
very true. Yep, following travelthey you know, they go around to
different competitions, So I think thoseare the top three. Ammunition, entry
fees, and travels seem to consistentlybe at the top of those expenses.
Yeah. Yeah, it's you know, I didn't realize how big shootings,
how big of a thing shooting sportswas, and especially the U sportings youth
(24:36):
shooting sports teams were until I movedto Houston, I guess around eleven years
ago, you know. And uh, I've lived in San Antonio for a
few years now. They've got theNational Shooting Complex there. But you know,
the big thing in San Antonio waslet's all go to the golf course,
which I didn't do because I'm nota golfer. But you move here
and it's like, hey, there'sanother clay shoot this weekend or something.
You're going to go whatever. Andyou know, I've had been lucky and
(24:57):
blessed to be exposed to these Ushooting tames. These kids come out and
almost to a person, uh,men, young men and young women,
they come out. They are polite. And I'm not I'm not, you
know, discrediting any young adult outthere listening, but I find I find
that these these kids that come out, I call them kids because I'm an
(25:17):
old man. They come out onthese teams and they compete in these events,
and they they participated in our annualSporting Place tournament too, and they're
polite, they're well behaved, veryrespectful, of course, you know,
a keen eye for safety. ButI just you know, I just always
find these kids to be of adifferent ilk, if you will, uh,
than than some than some I runinto. So I know this is
(25:41):
Danny, and I couldn't agree more. You know, you didn't grow up
with the range like Sarah did.But I've been in the industry now,
uh just over ten years, andI have the same impression as I started
going to these large national shoots ofthe youth participating extremely respectful. Yes ma'am
know, sir, thank you please. It was very very refreshing and just
(26:07):
just reiterated why you know I cometo work every day. Yeah, yeah,
it's it's uh, it's to thepoint now where I don't even think
about it. I just expect thesekids to show up and just be,
you know, top of their game. And they and then they always are.
They never disappoint Just one of theother things too, that always impressed
me about your organization. You guysregularly, I don't know if it's a
yearly or twice a year, youregularly hold what I would call summits with
(26:32):
your coaches and or your teams andpeople to talk about fundraising, to talk
about fundraising, guidance and that sortof thing. That's that's something that a
lot of people don't do. It'sit's more of a transactional thing. Here's
some money, here's here, youknow, here's what you got, and
here's what you can get you andfill out these forms and get up.
But you guys have a very handson approach with these with these teams and
these programs we do. Our programmanagers are are great out there in the
(26:56):
field, attending not only national competitionsand you know, or small ones,
but also coaches meetings, that aregoing on so that we can really educate
coaches on how to utilize our program. And then annually midway I think foundation
hosts a national Youth Shooting Sports conferencefor our organizational agency endowment accounts in those
larger state and national organizations and howthey're helping to fund raise with teams.
(27:19):
So we're trying to be as impactfulas we can out in the industry and
out with our teams to make surethat everyone is utilizing us as much as
possible. You know, our goalis to get the grant out the door
to these teams. Yeah and yeah, y'all do a fabulous job of that.
And it's to your credit. Imean, you don't. You don't
walk around and pound your chest aboutit. I don't think that that's one
(27:41):
of the reasons. So I wasexcited to have you guys on is is.
I wanted to, you know,to publicize the good works that you
guys do, because you don't.You don't just you don't waigh that flag
going look at all the great stuffwe're doing. You just do it,
which is I think is one ofthe coolest aspects about how you guys do
it. Do uh do your job? And what you're doing for these for
these people, know, these studentsbasically of the stage all across the United
(28:03):
States. I appreciate that. Ithink that we we do. You know,
we are a small that mighty staffand we really have a lot of
work to do and we take itserious because we know they rely on the
funding. So I think that's what, you know, we just kind of
put our heads down in to yourpoint, just just keep doing what we
(28:23):
got to do to accomplish the mission. And we know that really, I
mean, yeah, I appreciate whatwe do. We do great things,
but to be honest, as volunteerson the ground levels that are coaching the
teams and taking time away from homeand getting these kids to competitions and showing
up the practice every day when theyhave a to do list a mile a
(28:44):
long, they're the ones that arereally doing the hard work. Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely, Volunteers always makeit happen. Okay, we're going to
take a quick break here heading intoour final segment where you're joined today with
Sarah by Sarah Hall, project andevents manager, and Danny Ferris, the
marketing manager with Mindweight USA Foundation.Check out their website at midway USA Foundation
dot org. We will see youon the other side of the break.
(29:06):
Honeymatters, KPRC nine fifty. Welcomeback Honeymatters and KPRC nine fifty. This
(29:56):
is your host, Joe Bitar,I am Ramon Robeless. Joining us today
is Sarah Hall and Danny Ferris withthe Midway USA Foundation. Thank you guys
once again for joining us. Thankyou very happy to be here. All
right, I feel I have topreface this every time I ask these questions
to women, because I just feellike I do. I asked this to
everybody that comes on the show.If a VIP were coming into town and
(30:18):
you had to make one dish,what would it be? Oh my,
I don't claim to be much ofa chef at all. What would you
bake? Could you do anything?Or would you drag us if ramone's talking
about himself be in the Vampire orwould you drag us to a favorite local
restaurant. I was going to say, if you're going to ask the restaurant
(30:41):
question, Danny here again, that'smy goat too. I can tell you
all the great local restaurants we liketo jug that Danny kind of moonlights for
the Chamber of commerce around here atColumbia. All the places to go,
did you guys just picture? Doyou guys watch? Did you got to
(31:02):
see Ted Lasso? Yeah? So, what's your name? Was? At
one time in her past career wasthe videotape host and all the hotels Welcome
to Wittenburg or wherever she wants.I watched the show Jaylee. Hey,
let's just blow off this last segmentand talk about Ted last. We could
talk about Ted last their for hours. That's great, all right? So
(31:27):
okay, well, y'all kind ofwiga. Y'all's way out of that out
of answering. But I'll make iteasy. If if I was going to
go to Columbia, where would Iwant to go? Take the vap to
eat? Well, if you wantto go to stake, you got to
go to CC's spell that for me, yeah, right, for that's pizza
(31:52):
chain. Okay, all right,I'm looking at it City Broiler. Yeah,
I'm looking right at that. Okay, all right. The service is
fantastic. And then the probably thesecond one I have to recommend is Murray's.
Murray's Staple was just wonderful. Anythingyou get, you'll you'll appreciate.
(32:14):
The second that good. I thinkI've actually eaten at Murray's one time.
When I was there, I didn'tperfect. I didn't realize that Columbia was
right smack in the middle between KansasCity and Saint Louis, right in the
middle. We are Yeah, wow, Okay. In Kansas City in itself
(32:34):
is just an ENDINGGMA. Is itMissouri or is it Kansas. It's just
it's always boggled my mind. Don'tpay attention to I'm just a moment.
I saw an image the other dayof a comediator someone putting on a show
in Kansas City. It was feelingtons of things served to me for Kansas
(32:57):
City, being a chief fan,and it as someone probably going out on
one of the stages at one ofthe big Sprint Center t mobile and it's
had a sign you are in Missouri, not Kansas. That's up a lot.
Yeah, that's hilarious. Go ahead, No, I was just going
to talk about, you know,we were talking about programs and endowments things
(33:19):
before you know there you'd mentioned onduring the break that they're like one hundred
and almost two hundred Texas teams thatare with an adowment have an endowment with
you guys, Yes, that iscorrect. You can actually go on our
site into first by state and Inoticed there are one hundred and ninety eight
Texas youth shooting teams that have anendownment with us. That's awesome good.
(33:42):
And then of course Houston's Spark ClubFoundation works with you guys on the endowment
program as well. Yes, Ido, absolutely, and you know that
endowment has over a million dollars init. So He's Houston Safari Club Foundation
has received over three hundred and twentythousand dollars in grants from Midway Estate Foundation.
And if I'm not mistaken, thathelps fun annually use wildlife conservation experience
(34:04):
with some other youth team events thatyou guys handled right right, absolutely,
and we we really you know,appreciate and enjoy that relationship being able to
fund and support these local teams.And we're we're I actually asked you the
question earlier. Is this sport growingor stagnant or whatever? I actually see
more grant requests coming in every yearfrom FFA teams, for h teams and
(34:24):
these other high school teams that arethat are needing funding and support. And
now you know some of these teamshave actually been around so on. Now
they're like, we need to upgradeour facilities and our and our targets and
and throwing equipment, that sort ofthing. So we're, yeah, it's
it's that's always when when a grantrequest comes to us for one of those,
it's always a no brainer. Ittypically just gets pushed right through.
(34:44):
Yep, high school team needs shooting, new uniforms, whatever. Yet we're
gonna do it. You know thatbusiness dandy here That makes me think of
how we just recently adapted to somerequests. It. We do see this
growing and we're offering these team catchgrants to these organizational catch brands, and
(35:06):
we thought, what else do weneed to grow the sport? And two
things came up, and that wastrained coaches and improved ranges. So we
now offer coach training grants and rangedevelopment grants, and those two programs have
gone really, really well, andthey've gotten a lot of attention, the
(35:27):
attention of some folks that maybe didn'tknow that before, because we're better in
rangers out there too, because morekids are coming to shoot and we want
even more on these ranges. Yeah, you don't think about that. I
mean in some of these places.It's like when I was in high school,
we didn't have we we used thelocal, local municipal football field.
We were a small school, andyou know, eventually we got our own
(35:50):
stadium, but built around stadium.But these kids are in the same boat,
and you know, these these rangemanagement programs and these range building programs
are vital to getting new programs startedor supporting as it already currently exists.
Can private donors support this? Iknow, I know you guys work with
a lot of industry partners and thatsort of thing. But what if I'm
a guy who just wants to writea check and support the program? Yeah?
(36:10):
Absolutely, that web page that Dannymentioned where you can search all of
the teams in your state or byzip code, anything like that, you
can donate directly through our website tothe endowment of your choice, and that
donation is matched one to one.And then, of course, you know,
if you want to write a checkand mail it here, that information
available on our website. We matchedall of those donations one to one,
(36:34):
and we put one hundred percent ofthat donation into the Endowment of Toys.
We don't pull anything out for operating. Another aspect that makes us pretty unique
and that one hundred percent of yourdonation goes to endowment of your choice full
amount match one to one. AndI do want to point out again and
remind folks that are listening that inMidway USA Foundation is a five O one
C three public charity as well,and you can check out their website at
(36:57):
Midway USA Foundation dot org. I'mgonna ask each of you this question.
I'll start you with Sarah. Withyou first, what's the what's the most
favorite part of your job? AndI like every part of this domule coming
from sports background, getting to staywithin this industry and be out on the
range still, I love that Ithink that shooting athletes and their coaches are
(37:20):
some of the best people out there, so getting to interact with them kind
of the highlight of my day.And then, you know, just my
skill set, my weirdness that allcomes together make this more perfect as I
love the organization and keeping logistics ontrack, and so getting to partner my
passion with things that also work wellin business becomes kind of my dream job.
(37:43):
I guess I could say, soeverything can I answer? Everything?
Sniggled out? I whiggled out itout, but I knew. It's I
get interacting with the coaches that areout there. It's probably my favorite part.
And that was Danny. Sorry sorrythat with Sarah. Sarah and Danny
email Danny, do you have anythingaside from what Sarah had that kind of
(38:04):
jumps out at you that you knowmakes you get up and go every day?
Well? I got lucky enough whenSarah became a manager to get to
go to several events with her.And I was used to just being in
the office and working on making printmaterial and writing emails and going to these
events. When I see a coachor a volunteer, when it clicks what
(38:27):
these endowments do and the potential youhave of your you're in control of your
own endowment, and the light bulbcomes on. The next thing I know,
these coaches are having fundraisers and they'redonation after donations coming in for their
endowment and they're pulling agreeant. Thatis really really cool to see them in
person and see the light bulb comeon. And then they go to work
(38:51):
in their community and next thing youknow, they have one hundred thousand dollars
in their endowment and they're to actuallysee that and not just you know process
and grants right, So awesome,so awesome. Well, thank you both
for joining us today. We areout of time. We will see everyone
next week here on Hunting Matters kpr C nine fifteen
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