It seems like only a short time ago that a group of enthusiastic volunteers interested in wildlife conservation met at the former Greensboro Public Library main branch (now the Elon University School of Law), to discuss the benefits of creating the North Carolina Wildlife Habitat Foundation.
At that meeting, officers were elected and a pass-the-hat collection produced $102 for the purpose of opening an expense account. It was announced that we already had $3000 in hand for membership fees. The 14 people present were asked to prepare a list of prospective members to solicit and try to come to the next meeting with enough pledges to reach $10,000.
They came back with more than $37,000 and a substantial amount of enthusiasm.
By then, we had a better idea of what the potential was for the organization. We became more aggressive and agreed on reaching a goal of $100,000 by the end of 1993.
Our initial objective, when we first talked about the idea, was to create a $1 million wildlife habitat savings account that would supplement wildlife conservation projects across North Carolina.
In January of 1994, we had reached our $100,000 goal as a result of several substantial gifts that came to us at year-end. Wake County Wildlife Club, Camp-Younts Foundation, N.C. Bass Federation, Southern National Bank (now BB&T) and several others made $5,000 gifts that put us beyond our intended goal at that point.
From 1995 until the beginning of the new century, our growth accelerated greatly. We started our annual N.C. Wildlife Extravaganza, with board member Teena Koury providing the leadership for that event.
We received the endorsements of Richard Childress and Dale Earnhardt Sr., which led to a substantial financial boost from the NASCAR All-Star Race. We were honored by Johnny Morris and selected as the beneficiary of the Grand Opening of his Bass Pro Shops store at Concord Mills Mall.
After that, Richard Childress selected us as one of four featured conservation groups in the RCR Racing Museum. All of this good fortune inspired a lot of individuals to become members of our organization. Our assets quickly grew to $750,000, bringing us closer to our initial $1 million objective.
Since the beginning of 2000, progress has continued. We have now reached our $1 million objective and we are headed for our second million. We have provided funding for over $500,000 worth of projects.
Our Adopt-an-Acre program has experienced impressive success. We have acquired more than 200 acres of prime wildlife habitat, which will be added to the N.C. Game Lands Program.
The leading supporters of this program are the N.C. Wild Turkey Federation, the N.C. Bowhunters, Camp-Younts Foundation, Wake County Wildlife Club and Budweiser. These groups raised almost $100,000 for the program and will result in a total purchase of almost $500,000 worth of public Game Lands.
With no paid staff and no employees, our board members, volunteers and those who make up our membership can take great pride in what we’ve accomplished. With less than 1,500 members, we have made a big difference, even though we make up less than one fourth of one percent of the outdoor enthusiasts in North Carolina.
We hope you will give some thought to what a big difference it would make if you encouraged just one of your family members or your hunting and fishing partners to become part of our organization. Nothing could be more helpful in making sure that we “Don’t Let The Dream Die.”
