I have had a
number of readers ask me about my underprivileged kids ranch… Panther
Creek. Recently a church from
Owensville Missouri reserved the place for a weekend in June and will be
bringing more than 20 kids.
Panther Creek amounts to a 60-acre outdoor education center with a lodge
and 2 cabins, absolutely free to any group wanting to use it.
Everything is
there a group might need. All that
needs to be brought to the place is food and clothing. I’ve worked on it for 4 years now, and
we have trap-shooting, kayaking and canoeing, a swimming hole, a gravel bar
bonfire site, a historic bridge made in 1882, a softball-soccer field, pool
table (which kids seem to be drawn to like a magnet) and a couple of miles of
trails and photography platforms.
Our food plots ensure a lot of wildlife to be seen. We also have
conservation projects kids can help us with while they are there.
If you want to
help with a charitable donation, I would welcome it. The cost of operating the project is about 6 or 7 thousand
per year. But I want no one
thinking we are making one penny out of our place. If you want to send a small
check, you should make it out to our debtors, perhaps the St. Clair County
Collector, Sac Osage Electric Company, the Hickory County Insurance Company or
Doke Propane. Those are our
biggest costs. I don’t want anyone
making a check out to me. If you
have questions about the place, would like to visit and perhaps spend a night
there, just call me at 417-777-5227.
We have never had newspaper or television publicity. I am a conservative writer who they do
not like much. But this column and
my magazine have been getting the word out well. Still, we have a lot of open dates each year.
As most of you
know, the director of the Missouri Department of Conservation, Mrs. Sara
Pauley, spent several hours with me a couple of weeks ago at our Panther Creek
Retreat. We talked about many of
the things I write that the MDC does not want known, and we talked about some
conservation projects to benefit ordinary Missouri outdoorsmen, which we could
work together on.
I blindsided Mrs.
Pauley with a request to have help with our outdoor education center there on
Panther Creek. There is so much
the MDC could do that would help hundreds of underprivileged children learn so
much about the outdoors at our place.
I told her I knew
about the millions of dollars her agency has given to Johnny Morris and Bass
Pro Shops…. Why not give us some help too. I don’t think Mrs. Pauley knows that the MDC pays the annual
property tax for a number of influential people, seemingly all lawyers and
judges. A western Missouri judge
was given 235,000 dollars to invest into a PRIVATE waterfowl hunting marsh
where MDC officials went to hunt ducks with some of Kansas City’s prominent
athletes. Each year the
conservation department pays that family’s property taxes--nearly 1000 dollars
to be paid “in perpetuity”. That
means forever.
So I proposed
that the MDC pay the Panther Creek property taxes… less than 500 dollars. And in turn I would give the equal
amount each year to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. Mrs. Pauley smiled, but never answered. When I brought it up again, she turned
away and acted as if she didn’t hear me. Can you imagine why they would not do
something so minimal in cost, and be so eager to give lawyers, judges and the
richest man in Missouri, millions of dollars?
I doubt that Mrs.
Pauley can do much, but somebody in the MDC could make that happen easily. No matter, I will give some of what I
have to St. Jude’s anyway.
I urge you to
read more about the conservation projects I hope to get the MDC to help me
with, in my Lightnin’ Ridge Outdoor Magazines summer issue being printed next
week. If you want to get a copy, call that office number given above.
Write
to me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo 65613 or email me at lightninridge47@gmail.com.
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