Lilly Pad Ranch and “Camo Dreams” Sponsor Special Hunt for Special Hunter

Second “Special Hunt”

at Lilly Pad Ranch By Sid Riley

Ray Windham, Director of Operations at the Lilly Pad Ranch facility near Alford, along with Derek Fussell, of Panama City, and founder of “Camo Dreams”, sponsored a special deer hunt for a special hunter last weekend. The “special” hunter was Bradford Whited a twelve year old from Panama City. Bradford has muscular dystrophy, and is confined to a wheel chair.

Also participating in the hunt were sports celebrities donating their time through the “Buck Commander” organization, which is affiliated with the well known “Duck Commander” group. This organization involves sports stars in charitable hunting and fishing events. Accompanying Bradford in his hunt were Tombo Martin, who just retired from his baseball career which ended with the NY Mets, and Bamn Woodham, who played football for the University of Tennessee.

The group hunted Friday and Saturday in a special handicapped tree stand provided by Camo Dreams. The portable stand has a ramp which allows wheel chair access, and tinted Plexiglas sides and a roof. It holds eight hunters. Delicious lunches were provided by the Lilly Pad staff.

Alas, this year they saw several deer, but none were close enough to allow a shot from Bradford, who was using a gun with a special scope for the novice hunter. This was the first time Bradford had been hunting in his entire life, an experience this struggling youngster will never forget.

This is the second hunt of this nature that Lilly Pad Ranch and Camo Dreams have co-sponsored. Last year a 19 year old girl with a rare form of cancer, mesothelioma, killed an eight point buck.

We commend these fine people and organizations for their humanitarian work.