See You Later, Bad Day to be a Gator

** WARNING** if you are squeamish about seeing dead animals (alligators) or anything associated with hunting, you might want to skip this blog post!

Last chance to hit exit and wait for our next post…

So you, brave soul, will see that as always, there is never a dull moment at Avon Park AFR as a workamper/volunteer! The long anticipated Youth Gator Hunt took place this weekend. We were excited to participate in the annual event, which is sponsored by the local Federation of Christian Sportsmen. Avon Park AFR volunteers helped in scouting out the gators in the weeks before the actual hunt, setting up the campground for their weekend gathering and some volunteers acted as guides or helpers for the 5 groups that went out hunting. 5 young hunters were selected randomly from a list of applicants. Each youth was paired with a guide and several helpers went along to assist in the hunting and retrieval of their gator.

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The morning began with breakfast served at the campground for the hunters, their families, the guides and volunteers. A small “demo” gator was displayed in the opening briefing so everyone could see him up close. Hunters where introduced and groups were given their assigned areas to hunt in. All 5 groups were successful and once they each brought in their gator, the volunteers helped to put it on a winch and measure it. The guides, hunters and volunteers then helped in cutting up the meat and bagging it. Each young hunter received 10 bags of gator meat to take home and the remaining meat will be used for a wild game dinner sponsored by the Federation of Christian Sportsmen in late February.

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This event is another in the long list of unique experiences we have had at Avon Park. These are things we would NEVER have the opportunity to participate in at an average, ordinary, workamping job! Next post I’ll let you know about representing Avon Park AFR in a youth educational event in Lakeland. We’ll also show you the murals in Lake Placid, Florida, a little town about 30 miles south of Avon Park. Comment below with any questions…thanks for reading!