Alaska Youth Education in Shooting Sports hosts 16th annual Gun Show and Christmas Extravaganza

The Alaska Youth Education in Shooting Sports (YESS) held their 16th Annual Gun Show and Christmas Extravaganza at the state fairgrounds in Palmer. Profits made from the show help local Mat-Su and statewide competitive shotgun shooting teams with ammunition, firearms, travel and equipment costs. YESS State Administrator Lorinda “Lindy” Moss and her husband Neil work to organize the event every year to support the teams that they started 20 years ago.

“It's a big deal,” Lindy Moss said. “Takes a lot of work to put on, but it's the only fundraiser the kids do all year.”

From the original team of Valley youth that participated in the shotgun shooting sports program in 2004, Alaska YESS has grown to include 450 participants in 18 teams across the state. Students can participate in clay target shooting at the elementary and secondary level in local schools with the possibility of lettering in varsity competition.

Youth members from across the Valley work at the gun show selling raffle tickets, operating tables and working on the floor. Fundraising is distributed among teams based on how many hours the members volunteer.

There were 65 vendors and 175 tables of products at this year’s event. New and used firearms, animal furs, bamboo fishing rods, ammunition, handmade earrings, local honey and various handcrafted gifts filled Raven Hall. The idea is to have something that everyone in the whole family can enjoy, according to Moss.

“I just had two vendors tell me this is the best show they do all year, statewide,” Moss said. “And one of them says, ‘This is the premier gun show. This is the show that we do.’”

Many of the vendors return year after year to the show, Moss said. Some have been there since the beginning.

“I feel like they're family,” Moss said. “It's like having a family reunion. They all know each other; they all know me… that family atmosphere exists.”

One of the major attractions this year was the Fur-Fish-Game Magazine original cover artwork feature. Local Charles “Chuck” Graham provided a display of 22 paintings and their accompanying magazines from the 1950s through the 1970s.

“They're all original pieces of artwork that were used for the covers of Fur-Fish-Game,” Graham said. “They used to have a new commissioned artist do the painting just for the magazine. There's no more of this stuff out there, except on the magazine covers. And these are the originals.”

Graham writes for Trap Collectors Magazine, the membership magazine for the North American Trap Collectors Association (NATCA) based out of Ohio. Graham was asked by a club member if he was interested in purchasing the paintings. Arthur Robert Harding was an outdoor author and the founder of Fur-Fish-Game magazine in the early 1900s. When he passed away, he had left a collection of original artwork in his closet that the NATCA eventually acquired. Graham purchased the paintings and began hunting down their accompanying magazines.

“I wanted to bring them back to Alaska, [to] live up here,” Graham said. “The magazine was sold up here forever. And now we have this artwork, and anybody who wants to see them… I’d be happy to show them.”

Moss works hard to support the Alaska YESS teams. She said that the fundraising for this weekend will ease the financial burden for competitors. High ammunition costs, firearm purchases and competition registration can be a factor in the number of students that participate.

Students involved with Alaska YESS learn work ethic, punctuality, responsibility, leadership and mentorship. The program is designed to set kids up for success in academics, their careers and their future lives. Many members attend universities with full ride scholarships after graduating from the program. Previous members and their families give credit to this program for setting them up for success.

“Our primary purpose is to promote excellence in academics for the kids to develop their character, to help them understand how important it is to be responsible,” Moss said. “It's just a wonderful program.”

People interested about Alaska YESS can go to their website at https://www.akyess.org/ to learn more about the organization, how to participate and how to become a partner.