Weekend hunt brings wounded veterans to Southwest Georgia farms, plantations

ALBANY — There’s no escaping the passion in Chad Gunter’s voice as he tells the story.

“A local plantation owner was sponsoring a hunter on his land — and understand, this guy doesn’t let anyone hunt on his land,” Gunter said. “Well, the guy who’s hunting kills his first deer, and the plantation hunter and his son are all over him, high-fiving and celebrating. The guy who killed the deer is so overcome, he’s compelled to do something. So he pulls out a Purple Heart coin — this guy is a Purple Heart winner! — and gives it to the plantation owner.

“Man, that guy cried like a baby. And this is a guy who, if that big tree out there fell on him, I guarantee you he wouldn’t cry.”

Gunter, whose business interests include the Albany-based AET Group, and Junior Coker, owner of the Coker Agency LLC, are telling a visitor about the Wounded Veterans Outdoor Network of SOWEGA Hunt for wounded veterans scheduled Thursday-Saturday. The more the businessmen — and outdoorsmen — talk, the more infectious their enthusiasm becomes.

“Look, man, this entire community just opened their arms to us when we started this three years ago,” Gunter said. “But this is so much bigger, so great a thing, we want this entire community to be a part of it. This hunt is for guys who’ve laid down so much more than any of us will ever know. They deserve our respect, our support and our gratitude.”

Wounded Veterans Outdoor Network of SOWEGA — WVON — will host its third wounded veterans hunt on farms and plantations in Dougherty and Lee counties Thursday-Saturday. A select group of between 20-23 wounded veterans will come to the region to participate in a weekend of activities that leaves participants with no doubt that their sacrifices are appreciated in Southwest Georgia.

After something of a welcome parade/gathering/meet-and-greet at noon Thursday at Griffin Lumber in Leesburg, the veterans will be feted by WVON members and other volunteers throughout the weekend, which will culminate with a tribute concert featuring ELI and Ryan West on Saturday evening at Chehaw.

Meals will be provided by the Wounded Veterans Outdoor Network and sponsor businesses and organizations like River Pointe Golf Club, Riverfront BBQ, the American Legion, Pearly’s, and individual farm and plantation owners. Auctions, raffles, live music Friday night by Riley Anderson and other events will be part of the weekend.

Coker and Gunter quickly point out that “every dime” of the money raised goes into the wounded veterans hunt and other activities for the guests of honor.

“One of the hills we have to climb is that old stereotype where people will comment about an event that is supposedly for a deserving group that turns out to be good for the sponsors as well,” Coker said. “This is not like that at all.”

Gunter picks up on the theme.

“This is something that the people can be assured that 100 percent of the proceeds go to our veterans,” he said. “I can guarantee you, if we’ve been asked once, we’ve been asked 30 to 40 times: ‘Where is the money going to?’ Well, if you give $5, $100 or $1,000, every penny of it is going to our veterans.”

WVON had its genesis when Gunter, who at that time owned the Backwoods Outdoors outlet, met wounded veteran Jessie White. White now lives in Leesburg, but he works with the Defense Department instructing personnel in all branches of the country’s military. He was conducting archery training Friday at Fort Benning, and he recently went to Japan to help coordinate the Warrior Games.

“Jessie and I met in August or September three years ago,” Gunter said. “When he told me his story, our conversation continued until we had a rough idea of organizing hunting activities to help get wounded veterans out of their homes. We kind of laid out our ideas on a whiteboard, and shortly after that I started contacting the plantation owners in the area. Everyone I talked to said yes, they wanted to be a part of what we were doing.

“Of course, none of us had ever done anything like this, so for us it was like herding cats.”

Coker pointed out that many of the veterans who come to Southwest Georgia — from all over the country … there’s a current waiting list of around 30 veterans hoping to get the opportunity — are taking part in a hunt for the first time.

“That was a little strange for some of us, because in South Georgia hunting is like a religious rite,” Coker said. “That added a level to what we were trying to do.”

The hunts turn out to be therapeutic — and often magical — for the participants.

“A lot of these guys come home from war, they get a little welcome-home attention, and then they’re left alone,” Coker said. “That sometimes leads them down a dark place. We want to get them outside, make them active, let them experience something better than sitting in their house all day.

“It sounds funny to say that you see warriors like these veterans get almost teary-eyed over a deer head, but this means something to them.”

This year’s class of participating veterans, which comes from seven different states and another country, offers its own kind of special challenges for organizers. In addition to two Special Forces veterans and a wounded veteran from Australia who fought beside U.S. troops in Afghanistan and wants to experience the hunt so that he can expand WVON’s work into his country, this year’s hunting group also includes the first female veteran participant and a legally blind veteran who plans to bow hunt.

“We want the community to be a part of this, but we aren’t asking them for a dime,” Gunter said. “Yes, we accept contributions — a dollar, $5, $20, whatever — but we want people to donate their time and their effort, too. The VFW post puts out flags for the veterans; people who know nothing about golf help us with our golf tournament fundraiser. Anybody can help; they just need to give one of us a call. We’ll find something that they can do.”

Coker knows first-hand what involvement can lead to.

“Chad approached me last year and asked me to be a sponsor, and about halfway through the hunt, I went to him and said, ‘What do you need?’” the businessman said. “More people need to witness what I have witnessed. It’s simply amazing.

“What we end up getting for these veterans is Southern hospitality overload. They may come here unsure about what they’ve gotten into, and you see them kind of turn into themselves or talking only with the other veterans in the group who’ve been through what they’ve been though. But little by little, they loosen up. And before the event’s over, you have guys coming up to thank everyone for allowing them to participate. Man, that’s just an amazing feeling.”

Gunter said he and other members of WVON have plans to do more for the nation’s wounded veterans.

“One of the cool things about this hunt is that at least a third of the veterans who have participated have been invited back by landowners for hunts that had nothing to do with our wounded veterans hunt,” he said. “These veterans truly make friends here.

“I’d like for us to raise enough money to maybe get some land, build a facility and get some canoes and kayaks that would be available to the veterans throughout the year.”

Before that, though, there is this coming weekend’s hunt.

“Man, the biggest thing we want to do is see this entire community involved,” Gunter said. “You’ll get to be a part of something that’s meaningful, and you’ll see people who are passionate about doing what they can for these people who’ve given themselves in service to our country.

“We know people have been beat up with ‘gimme’ from all directions. We just want to share this experience with anyone who wants to be a part of it.”

To volunteer, serve as a sponsor or donate, contact Chad Gunter at (229) 869-2323 or [email protected]; Krystal Gunter at (229) 894-1154 or [email protected]; White at (443) 966-1299 or [email protected]; Coker at (229) 392-3377 or [email protected]; Joseph Crooke at (229) 854-0854 or [email protected]; or Amy Rolfe at (229) 343-3029 or [email protected].