Dale from Central New York (state, not city)

[john pulis]

Originally Posted by Dale Soos

Hi John,

Until last year, I volunteered in the DEC booth at the NYS Fair in Syracuse every year. And we'd get accosted by people telling us we needed to hold more classes, with the same claim you just made - filling up quickly (usually within minutes of it going live to sign up). When we told those folks we were all volunteers, it usually changed their tone about it. It is a mostly thankless job, but all of us get some satisfaction from holding them. It has been tough with COVID, since we were prohibited from doing the in-person classes. It was interesting, as the numbers of new hunters was way up, with hunting related incidents at one of the lowest ever. My nephew and brother did the online class, and there was a lot that got lost in that format, but real-world experience is paying off for them both as they hunted last year.

It was nice to see the large number of younger people attending the HE course. Fathers with sons ad daughters, mothers with same, and a sprinkling of us older folk. The course was, for one day, fairly comprehensive. This was pre-covid. And yes, all very civic minded volunteers.