Certified HIT

Sounds kinda cool, doesn't it? Certified HIT - could it be a hitman? Nope, just a certified Hunters Information Training Program instructor. That's right, I'm certified to teach Hunter's Ed in the state of Alaska. I spent all day yesterday, along with Friday evening in training. I though this was something I could do with my camp kids this summer. There is a definite need for at least firearm safety all over the YK Delta. I'm not sure how many deaths a year happen from firearm negligence (is that spelled right?), but it is probably a minimum of 1-2. Most of it is because the natives will leave their guns sitting in their artic entries loaded with something in the chamber. Doesn't take much for a curious kids to pull a trigger. It would be a little more difficult if the kid had to actually had to load the chamber. Last summer during my camps there were 2 kids (brothers, under 10) that got made at each other, so one of them got the gun and shot and killed his brother. This happens all too often here, so hopefully with some proper firearm use things like this won't happen.

On a side note, I'm breaking free from Bethel for a few days. Eric will be in Anchorage this week for a meeting and I was lucky enough to get a cheap ticket so I'm going to head in too. I'll head in Thursday morning and we'll come back on Sunday. I'm looking for the freedom, actually I need it to refocus, particulary on work. This past fall I was excited because we got the new grant and we had about $20,000 more dollars then we did last year. Well, now that I started figuring out costs of airline tickets and room and board for the kids, I'm in no better of a position then I was last year. It's frustrating. Anchorage's Talent Search program gets $514,000 to service the same number of students that we need to service and we only get $226,000. That sucks!!!!! Okay, enough work talk. I'll update when we get back from Anchorage. They have a JoAnns, Michaels, Walmart, etc. I'm so excited!!!!!!!