JAKES all grown up:
Where are they now?
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Now in her 20s, Ashley Hartley (pictured with her parents) is in pharmacy school but finds time to hunt or volunteer for the NWTF on the weekends. |
Ashley Hartley, of Florida, grew up in the NWTF. The daughter of Federation Board Member Marvin Hartley aimed her first shotgun at age 9.
The scattergun and the skill to shoot one earned her a scholarship to Lindenwood University and a spot on the USA Shooting Team. She’s now attending Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine’s Pharmacy School in Pennsylvania, but still finds time to hunt most weekends.
Let’s walk down memory lane with the now 20-something Ashley and discover how the JAKES program molded her into the successful co-ed she is today. — Eds.
NWTF: Tell us how you were involved in JAKES as a youth.
Ashley Hartley: I am not sure I can even remember the first time I heard the word JAKES. My family was actively involved in the NWTF and I was interested in the outdoors from the beginning, so becoming involved with the JAKES program was a natural progression.
I was allowed to attend the local NWTF banquet as soon as I could behave myself. I began working the JAKES table at the Jacksonville Chapter banquet at about 7 or 8 years old.
When I was young, JAKES was a way for me to connect with other kids with similar interests. As I got older, I
began to share my love for the outdoors with others. I continued working local banquets to recruit new JAKES members. I volunteered at JAKES Days, and also took my friends to the local gun club or the woods for an afternoon hunt.
NWTF: What is your favorite JAKES/NWTF memory?
AH: There are so many! I learned how to use a turkey call from Eddie Salter at a national JAKES event. But the two memories that will always be with me came not when I was a JAKES participant but as an NWTF volunteer.
While volunteering at a local chapter’s JAKES Day, I taught a 4-year-old boy how to shoot. He came with his mother who, after the fact, admitted being hesitant to bring her young son to the event. He spent the entire day waiting in line to shoot with me. He was much too small to shoot himself, so I put him in my lap, shouldered the gun for him and allowed him to pull the trigger at a target on the ground a few yards away. He was one of the last kids to leave that day, and I will never forget how happy he was and how grateful his mother was.
The other memory was when I taught a legally blind woman to shoot on her own at a Wheelin’ Sportsmen event. She thought there would be nothing she could actually do at the event, so having the chance to canoe, fish, hike and shoot was something she told me she would never forget.
They taught me more on those two days than I could have ever hoped to teach them.
And I can’t go without mentioning that I met my boyfriend of four years at the 2005 NWTF Convention. David [Halloran] is a well-known turkey call maker and had been donating to our events for several years. When I stopped by his booth to thank him for his generosity, I met a handsome 19-year-old who made some great calls.
So I can really thank the NWTF for many things.
NWTF: Are you still involved with the NWTF?
AH: I still volunteer in Florida and at our local chapter in Jacksonville whenever I am there. I also just returned from speaking at a Diamond Life event in Indiana and really enjoyed meeting more NWTF members there. I’ve become as active as possible in the Northeast and attended a Women in the Outdoors hunt in Cortland, N.Y., last fall.
The NWTF convention is my favorite, and I always manage to figure out how to get out of classes to attend all four days of the event! It’s a hectic time, going to all the events and helping David in his booth in the exhibitor’s hall. I can catch up with old friends and meet plenty of new ones every year.
A JAKE with a dream
Caleb Young, 13, a JAKES member from Winston, N.M., began shooting competitively about three years ago and quickly has become quite proficient in Olympic-style target rifle shooting with his smallbore (.22) and air rifles. He specializes in the Three-Position, or 3-P, events where competitors shoot for score from the prone (lying), standing and kneeling positions.
Caleb has a few wins under his belt and is on the road to fulfilling his Olympic dream.
Read his story in the latest Xtreme JAKES eMagazine.
Suggestion Box
Have a question about the JAKES program? Have an idea you’d like to share with the group? Send them to mharling@nwtf.net and receive a JAKES logo travel mug if we run your question or idea in the magazine.
Former JAKES who give back
Bradley Schatz instructs, serves and entertains
Bradley grew up in the Central Maryland NWTF Chapter and attended his first JAKES event at age 4. He attended every JAKES event after that until he turned 18.
Bradley passed his state hunter safety course at age 8 with almost a perfect score on the written exam and became a Maryland DNR Junior Hunter Safety Instructor at 10, then an assistant instructor at 16.
He achieved Eagle Scout rank in 2006 and earned
six Eagle Palms before turning 18.
In 2008, Bradley was awarded the Southern Maryland Chapter JAKES Scholarship and received a second place JAKES scholarship at the state level. Also that year, he received a congressional appointment to the United States Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) in Kings Point, N.Y. He’s presently a 3rd Class midshipmen and majoring in Marine Engineering Systems.
He is a trumpet player in the world-renowned 5th Regimental USMMA Band and Fanfare Trumpets, as well as a member of the academy’s honor guard.
Bradley also is a New York state certified EMT, and a member of the U.S. Navy Reserve.
Melissa Fort volunteers and educates
Melissa is part of the Madison County (Indiana) Chapter and attended her first JAKES event at 7. Archery was her favorite class at the events, and now she volunteers as an archery instructor at her chapter’s events. Melissa’s favorite JAKES memory is donating frozen turkeys to a shelter through the NWTF’s Turkey Hunters Care program. She’ll start college next fall and wants to be a teacher.