RISON - Organizers for the Cleveland County Cutters & Strutters Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) are already discussing the possibility of having to find a new home for its Jakes Day next year as Saturday's youth event drew a record-breaking crowd.
Despite a damp and overcast day with cool temperatures, a total of 207 youth registered for the event that is designed to encourage young people to get involved in the outdoors. John Varnell, who helped organize this year's event, estimated more than 400 attended once workers and the adults accompanying the youth were included in the count.
The event has been held at what is commonly referred to as the "Old Turkey Farm" located off Mt. Elba Road south of Rison. This year's turnout was so large that many had to park along Mt. Elba Road and made for a long walk to the event site.
The Cleveland County Jakes Day usually consists of a variety of stations set up in a circuit that youth visit for each session. This year's stations covered topics like taxidermy, fishing, trapping, cadaver dogs, forestry, pelts and more. There was also target shooting where youth had a chance to shoot a shotgun or small caliber rifle.
Crowds of more than 100 youth were common when the Jakes Day events first started, but attendance began to decline in recent years and the COVID pandemic gave it another blow (continued from page 1) as well.
This year, Varnell and the other volunteers put a lot more emphasis on securing donations for some nice door prizes and more emphasis on publicizing the event throughout the region. Varnell even had the chance to plug the event on Bill “Wild Man” Wilson’s statewide radio program.
All that effort paid off as visi‐tors from across Cleveland County as well as other parts of the state made the trip.
Dozens of door prizes that included a new Ruger .308 rifle, shotguns, compound bows, rods and reels, tackle boxes a...
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