WICKLIFFE – No poultry game was involved in the Kentucky Veteran and Patriot Museum turkey shooting on Saturday, although snipers with the best aim could win frozen turkeys and turkey trophies.
The Kentucky Veteran and Patriot Museum held its ninth annual Turkey Shoot fundraiser on Saturday on the grounds behind the museum. Participants donated money to the museum and in return they would try their luck by shooting 4.5 inch by 5.5 inch paper targets with a shotgun.
For each round, the top three participants whose shots landed closest to the center of their target would win a prize. Some of the prizes included small and large frozen turkeys and gift cards to local department stores and restaurants. The best shooter of the day won a golden turkey trophy.
Even participants who completely missed the mark were rewarded with gift cards to Range America in Paducah so they could work on their goal for next year’s Turkey shoot.
Most shotgun cartridges are designed to deliver a group of pellets, or a shot, at a target after the shot is fired. Kern Bruner, who helped set up the event, said that as long as the shooters were aiming the target correctly, one of the pellets in the shell had a chance of hitting the center.
“That’s what makes Turkey Shoot fun. It’s halfway on target, and halfway lucky, â€Bruner said.
Money raised at the event supported the Kentucky Veteran and Patriot Museum, which curator Sandy Hart says is funded entirely by donations. Hart said the Turkey Shoot is one of three events the museum holds each year to help raise funds for the museum and help share the stories of the veterans featured inside the facility.
Hart is currently planning events to honor the Museum of Veterans and Patriots’ 10th anniversary in March. She wants to schedule events each month in 2022 to honor both the museum’s anniversary and a trip she helped plan nearly 20 years ago, where she took more than 400 WWII veterans in Washington, DC to see the new WWII monument in 2004. Planning and fundraising for this trip began in 2002, and Hart also wants to honor those who helped raise over $ 200,000 to send these veterans in the nation’s capital.
One of the projects she is currently working on is collecting newspaper clippings and articles about local veterans. She makes copies of the stories she finds and plans to distribute these materials to local schools and libraries to help educate students about the men and women who fought for the United States.
Hart plans to schedule events in Wickliffe, where the museum is located, and events in Paducah, where more people could step out and honor the museum’s support for Kentucky veterans. She also seeks to include the opinions of local veterans groups in determining what type of events to host and how best to honor veterans from Kentucky.
