Saturday | December 16, 2000

Dallas Morning News

http://www.dallasnews.com/national/239687_hunting_16nat..html

Group fulfills ill youths’ desire to hunt

Charity started after Make-a-Wish chose
not to sponsor such requests

12/16/2000

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH ? The Make-a-Wish
Foundation has granted thousands of
requests from children with
life-threatening illnesses, sending
youngsters to Walt Disney World or
introducing them to their favorite pop
stars.

But there are some wishes the
foundation won’t grant. For the last
year, Make-a-Wish has refused to
arrange hunting trips.

That’s where Hunt of a Lifetime has come in.

The organization, formed to grant hunting
requests no longer met by Make-a-Wish, has
arranged several trips, including a safari
with rock ‘n’ roll wild man and ardent hunter
Ted Nugent.

“Make-a-Wish just makes me want to puke my
guts out,” Mr. Nugent said. “What could be
more pure than the last wishes of a young
child? And to deny that because of political
correctness? That’s just outrageous.”

The Motor City Madman will travel to South
Africa in July with Zachary Martin, a
16-year-old from Yreka, Calif., who has bone
cancer.

“Jeez, going hunting in Africa, and with
Ted Nugent. It’s been a dream of mine to
hunt with him ever since I started watching
his shows,” Zachary said.

Mr. Nugent, the singer of “Cat Scratch Fever,”
said he and the teenager will go bowhunting
for zebra, warthogs and impalas.

“Let me tell you, when you go hunting with
Ted Nugent, there is no Janet Reno around
to stop you. There is nothing more beautiful
than that,” Mr. Nugent said this week.

Make-a-Wish has granted 83,000 wishes but
put a stop to hunting outings, said Jim Maggio,
a spokesman for the charity.

“It’s a safety concern, basically with
exposing the kids and other participants
to the potential for danger from a weapon
being handled by someone who is in a weakened
state from a life-threatening disease,”
Mr. Maggio said.

Animal-rights groups had criticized hunting
trips arranged by Phoenix-based Make-a-Wish.

“We see something ironic here,” said Heidi
Prescott, director of the Fund for Animals.
“They’re teaching a child to kill and cause
another living being to suffer at a time when
that child, we would figure, would be empathetic
about the quality of life.”

Hunt of a Lifetime was founded by Tina Pattison,
a bus driver from suburban Erie, Pa., whose
stepson, Matt, died last year during chemotherapy
for lymph node cancer.

Before Matt’s death, Ms. Pattison tried to
raise money to send him hunting ? Make-a-Wish
still allowed such trips but wouldn’t help
because he was too old at 19. The people of
the little town of Nordegg in Canada heard
his story and raised money for Matt to fly
to a hunting camp by helicopter. He shot a
moose whose antlers were 41/2 feet across.

Cash donations made at Matt’s funeral were
used to start Hunt of a Lifetime, which mostly
runs on such contributions.

“Some people said the money ought to go to
Make-a-Wish, but I don’t think that’s what
Matt would have wanted because it forbids the
very thing he was all about ? hunting,”
Ms. Pattison said. “I don’t want anyone whose
child is sick to have to go through the
headaches I did.”

So far, five youths have hunted for free
through arrangements made by Hunt of a Lifetime.
Comedian Jeff Foxworthy will take a 20-year-old
cancer patient from Delaware deer hunting early
next year.

Ms. Pattison said the Nebraska and North Carolina
chapters of Make-a-Wish agreed to refer young
people to her. Mr. Nugent, Mr. Foxworthy and
other hunting guides donate their services.

Christine Manning of Penn Run, Pa., said she
watched Hunt of a Lifetime work wonders for her
14-year-old son, who had seven operations in seven
months and grew depressed with a disease that
makes blood vessels grow rapidly in his right
thigh. Last month, he shot a 700-pound bull elk.