Season 2 Updates and Expansions

Phil Ewert - Narrator

Welcome to the hometown hero outdoors podcast . Here is your host , Chris Tetrault . Hello everyone , welcome back to the hometown here outdoors podcast .

Chris Tetrault

We are back with our podcast with season number two last year . We ended this last January of 2023 , right before our banquet . We needed to take a little breather before we hop back into the podcast here . Doing this podcast is actually a lot more work than you think it is getting people lined up , getting the right time , making sure everyone's streaming services work . It's a lot , but we thoroughly enjoy it and we feel like it's a really good way for us to connect with not only people that support us , but also our members , as well as give some shout outs to the local guides and different sponsors that we have throughout the year . But we are excited to be back with season number two .

Chris Tetrault

We got a lot of cool things to talk about things that we've had done since January and things that are coming up . There's been changes within the organization , which we'll touch on too , but there's a handful of different things . So today we actually have Sean Oldsburg . He is our regional director out of Texas . We actually have our newly appointed secretary , todd Spindler , with us tonight too . Alan Laramore was our previous secretary and he took a break . He had some decent time away . He's pretty into his competition barbecue and recently had new employment , so he needed a breather , and we totally get that .

Chris Tetrault

Family is first and career as well . This is a volunteer gig , but just wanted to let everyone say that we appreciate you tuning into the podcast in previous years . It was kind of cool looking at the statistics of people actually listening to the podcast while we were away , not filming . There's been a lot of individuals who continue to listen to the podcast throughout our absence , so it's kind of cool to see that we had a following that continued to listen to what we had going on in the past year . Look forward to what we have to bring this next year , though , but welcome guys , welcome Sean , welcome Todd . How are you guys tonight doing great ?

Todd Spindler

thank you .

Chris Tetrault

I'm great good to be here . Everyone's been busy and if you did not know who Todd was , todd was the state director in Colorado . How long were you a state director there for Todd ? About a year , about a year , yeah , and I helped train him in with Sean Buckendale on Colorado , side by side . So it's that was a quick year . I'll give it that was really quick year , but we're happy that it's been fun , happy to have you on the board and we know that you're dedicated to the mission and helping those that we serve , so it's pretty exciting to have you here , sean . Thank you been busy , busy , busy down there . What's going on in your world ? What's been new since we took a little hiatus ?

Shaun Olsberg

wow , we haven't stopped . We had taken a little break on the podcast but we haven't stopped , that's for sure . Hho is going forward full steam ahead . We got a lot of expansions that we've done over the last six months , including some new state chapters of oh shoot , alaska . We got a chapter up in Alaska . Mr John Reese has stepped up and taken the state director role up there . He's a licensed captain and just army veteran and just ready to get out there and get some folks out in in Alaska to enjoy the outdoors . Then we we we also started Washington . We expanded to the state of Washington . We got tons of military and first responders and in the state of Washington that we can't wait to get out here on boarding a couple new states here the next couple days yeah , yeah , we got this week alone .

Shaun Olsberg

We've got . Well , we're gonna . We're gonna work with the new state director Mack , out of Colorado that is taking Todd's spot , and then we're also onboarding Arizona this week . So we're gonna . We're really looking forward to the expansions of working that Southwest area of the yeah , more landmass help more people .

Chris Tetrault

It's pretty awesome and the cool part to is you know you brought up John Reese and then listeners were here in a later episode . We actually met John Reese down in Texas from Alaska . He came down and hunted with Sean for his youth hunt that he did for deer hunting this last December of 2022 . That's when we really got to talk to John and get to meet him , so pretty cool .

Shaun Olsberg

Just a super guy , you know . He took the opportunity to fly us to take a sun out on a Texas deer hunt and we happen to have that going and so they came down and love what we were all about . And here we are . Now we're in Alaska , you know yeah , and he's like amazing .

Chris Tetrault

Retired from the army and will serve 77 years or something like that . Yeah , yeah , yeah , it's ongoing joke . I give him a hard time about how many years he put in , but the dude was dedicated and certainly is still dedicated to the country and helping others . And I actually went to Alaska with Eric Mattson too , and then it was awesome to see John Cause when we landed into Anchorage for Eric's King Eider hunt , john was there to help us out . He came and met us at the airport , loaded up our luggage , brought us to the hotel , and it just made everything a lot smoother when you're bringing six people with us , all that gear , to go to St Paul Island . Just having John on board to help us out when we got there , and then also he came to help us when we went back home . So huge shout out to John for the assistance . We really appreciate it . It made everything a lot more smooth , yeah .

Shaun Olsberg

Just a top notch guy . And then let me touch on Craig Craig Murphy . Craig Murphy stepped up for our Washington chapter . Craig's a retired Coast Guard veteran and man . This gentleman is pretty amazing . He does a lot , a lot over in Washington and we're just , we're blessed to have him .

Chris Tetrault

For sure , I think he's been on a couple of podcasts out there talking about the different things he does to include HHO as well , so really appreciate his help and spreading the word and our mission out there too . And then , todd , what kind of things have you , has Colorado been doing in the last few months , or what's coming up here ?

Todd Spindler

So in the last few months things have been a little quiet for Colorado . But coming up we have our golf tournament in the end of August it's August 25th . We would love to have everybody listening to this podcast join us August 25th in Colorado . Shortly after that we have we always do a dove hunt . That turns out pretty well with a lot of success . And then we have some big game hunts happening after that . Unfortunately , all of those have been or fortunately they've all been drawn for and tags are issued today and we should have some good success with that . And then some of the other things that we have got . Coming up is some various trips one for women only and we're looking at a few other fly fishing and back country horseback riding and camping fly fishing trip , working on some of that stuff , getting the details ironed out and by the time this podcast happens we should have happened had our laser outdoor laser tag at the Air Force Academy . It should be a very large event with a good participation rate . So looking forward to all that .

Chris Tetrault

That's outside the box kind of trip right there .

Todd Spindler

It is , and it was approached to us about going to the Air Force Academy and outdoor laser tag . It was we're sold , we're in , can't wait to do it . It's going to be a fun , fun event .

Chris Tetrault

Not traditional , different , unique , you know , turns your head a little bit . Do something different . That's pretty cool .

Chris Tetrault

I was just thinking too . So , as Todd said , you know tags are drawn today and then for our listeners , we're pre recording and we're towards the end of June , so we like to have a lot of our podcasts on the hopper ready to go . When he says they got drawn , today was in late June , so go almost in July . But you know I'm always talking about the day and I forget that the podcast come out in a few weeks or whatever , but it happens me all the time . But something that that was kind of cool I wanted to share with all the listeners too .

Chris Tetrault

We had our annual board meeting where we get all our board members together for approximately three days and we go over what happened in the previous year and what we're looking to do in the in the upcoming year . Here and we set a lot of goals and it's a very important meeting that we do . We actually held it in St Paul , minnesota , this year . We got an Airbnb downtown pretty awesome area . You know you think that we try to go in the middle of nowhere , but logistics wise it just makes it easier to for us be close to the airport and get people here . But kind of cool points that we had was in 2022 , we have a trip tracker . The number of trips in 2022 was 229 . So 1364 people were taken out into the outdoors by HHO so 1364 , which is pretty awesome , considering that we've exceeded our goal by 164 people . What do you guys think about that ?

Todd Spindler

That's awesome .

Shaun Olsberg

Yeah , you know 229 trips and really we have . We probably have about 18 active , active states right now that aren't in the building mode . So you know , between between those states to schedule out 229 trips , that's requiring at least one of our volunteer field staff per trip to go out there and organize and execute this trip . So I mean our hats off to all of our volunteer staff couldn't do without them .

Chris Tetrault

you know , and everyone's seeing what it does for others and sharing what they enjoy in the outdoors , which is incredibly important , and without our volunteers , there's no way that this would happen . So , you know , minnesota is our home state and this is where we started . You know , minnesota itself took out over 700 people , which is pretty incredible . That's a lot of people .

Chris Tetrault

Yeah , that is a lot , and then so we set record , or set our goals for 2023 , a little unique of what happened for this next year , though , is we actually changed our fiscal year around . So our fiscal year ends at the end of March , so April begins our new fiscal year , and , going into 2023 , we set that we would take out 1500 members for the new fiscal year , so we really want to hope hope that we blow those numbers out of the water . You know , I will say that , and I'm sure you guys can attest this too , but like just the state of the economy and things that are happening with inflation , politically , financially , just seems like things are a little slower now . Like just I don't know what it is . I don't know if it's a post COVID situation too , but it just seems like the amount of outdoor activities and just volunteers I know it's something that we've talked about with other organizations that volunteer hours are down I we just don't know what's going on . We're wondering if it's the economy or anything related . Have you guys seen any of that ?

Shaun Olsberg

I have a little . You know I attend a lot of trade shows in the off seasons and you know a lot of the hunting and outdoor expos . The numbers were down last year and but coming now , now this season , they're starting to pick up . I just went to a show in Fort Worth this last weekend and it was packed I mean people . Just it was crazy there was so many people there . So that was good to see and I'm hoping that that is a that results in more of our organizations like us being able to do to get back on their mission and get their , get their members out .

Changes in Careers and Supportive Banquet

Chris Tetrault

Todd , do you see anything ?

Todd Spindler

Yeah , we're seeing similar for us , with changes in a lot of people's careers have been happening , at least here in Colorado . Quite a few of us have changed jobs and new roles and that's kind of hindered some of us on what we've done . And I think that's happening across from . What I see , from my perspective and looking at things , is there's just so much change and turnover with people's lives that it's . We just need to get a little bit more settled back in and comfortable and moving forward again . I think that will really help us out . Everybody's moving in a great direction is just a little bit slower and caught more cautious this year .

Chris Tetrault

Yeah , one of the things I've started to notice too is excuse me is that I'm starting to notice that a lot of companies are pulling their employees back in from working at home . You know , the the commute is back there and I don't know if that has something to do to a little bit of brain fog with , you know , working from home for so long and then having to go back to work four days a week or five days a week , I think . I think part of that has something to do with it . You know , people trying to get readjusted to their old life or their whatever their new life might be , and just kind of trying to figure out where their free time actually is .

Shaun Olsberg

Yeah , Now , if they're working at home and being with their family all week , they they didn't mind taking off for the weekend , and so maybe now they're just just liking to stay back home and spend time with the family a little more in the weekends .

Chris Tetrault

Well , nothing wrong with that , though , you know . Like we said , family first right , absolutely , always , and always .

Chris Tetrault

So one of the cool things that we'll end up talking about on another podcast here coming up down the road is about our Minnesota national banquet that we hosted and it was last March and our last couple episodes that we had posted were with some of the people that we had at the banquet . That included Melissa Bachman , liz Collin and then one of our good friends , aaron Slater with Relentless Defender , came up with his wife and they're the owners of Relentless Defender and they do all of our merch and we will have a podcast that will kind of go over how the night went . But we can talk about a bit here and we'll dive into it deeper elsewhere . But the night was highly successful .

Chris Tetrault

It was at Holman Field Aviation Brigade down in St Paul at Holman Field . It was our second year there and this year was absolutely amazing , just like previous year , and Just the camaraderie that was built throughout the people that we've assisted throughout the night was phenomenal to see everyone just kind of mix and talk about the different experiences that they had , but then also seeing all the localized communities come together and be able to support our organization was pretty awesome too . Mr Olsberg came up from Texas with some of those Texas crew . They had a VIP event that they hosted up at Best Defense Army and Range . Melissa Bachman came up there and helped out . Want to talk about that ? Silence or central ? Put that on with you .

Shaun Olsberg

Yeah , absolutely yeah . Big shout out to silence or central for Coming on board and supporting this event . They were able to bring up two of their full-time , full-time guys to help us host 50 VIPs on a Saturday morning , so we've spent . We spent a few hours on the range at Best Defense up there and where was that at ?

Chris Tetrault

Forest Lake .

Shaun Olsberg

Forest Lake and what a what a great place that range . That was my first time there .

Phil Ewert - Narrator

Shaun Olsberg

Wonderful facility . It's perfect . It's set up perfectly for an event like that . So we had 50 people up there that were all able to talk guns , talking talking suppressors and talking hometown hero outdoors , and we're , we pushed them through sounds for central brought up a bunch of toys to include some , some fully automatic . That was a pretty big hit and we just got to shoot and shoot and shoot .

Chris Tetrault

And I was jealous .

Shaun Olsberg

Yeah , thanks to federal ammunition , you know , they came up and I mean we had more ammo that we could put down range , which is a good problem to have totally yeah , he'd show up to both of them , silence or central , which actually is the one to help with the connection with federal and Federal .

Chris Tetrault

For those who don't know , they are Minnesota based out of a Noka Minnesota , so that was pretty cool that you know . They weren't very far from their home base , coming over to help support us and silence the central . So , yeah , I appreciate Sean , and I gotta give a shout to Brian Chaffee too and his wife Jen . They came over and helped out as well , well , at least the organization of things and bringing some food and refreshments for the day . But it was a great night . You know we had I said our speakers were there we had Liz Collin with emceeing the evening . Melissa gave a great presentation that talked about the outdoors and Showed some awesome videos with her family and being outdoors together and what it can do for you . I Didn't get to watch it . Did you get to watch it at all ?

Shaun Olsberg

No .

Chris Tetrault

Headcut off .

Shaun Olsberg

Yeah , it was a great show , though , and you know , what that banquet proved to me is that , you know , our Economy may be down what have you but our supporters were still there , and Our supporters , sponsors , donors , partners they came out in full force and and made that that banquet a huge success .

Chris Tetrault

Yeah , and again , you know like our volunteers can't do without them , but we also can't do without our supporters and our donors . You know we did our our annual Online silent auction . That ends that night of , and then we also did a fund a need , with some fundraising . We did a presentation for our person of the year , brent Fowler . If you remember from previous podcasts or videos , we had Brent Fowler on our podcast for our main moose hunt . That was last September of 2022 . He was our person of the year . We presented an award to him for everything that he's done , has been through , and we got to watch Alan go up on stage and present the award to him , and Alan's actually his little brother , which is pretty awesome . You get to see Brent's been through a lot . So it was . It was a good night . And then after that we ended up into the live auction and that was pretty crazy too . We know we had a trip to Bali I think we sold five alos . A trip to Belize . We also sold five alos Some pretty awesome firearms with cans on them from silencer central . That was there . Some pretty awesome bourbon that some came from Texas , some came from Minnesota , but a good mix of everything . It was good night and again , without our people who support us and attend that and our sponsors , there's no way that we'd be able to move forward with the financial side of things to help our people . So we really appreciate all that .

Chris Tetrault

And the exciting part is , I'm pretty sure that night we have a . We have a volunteer that is now an assistant state director down in Texas . His name is Preston wall . Preston is a very active individual and loves to fundraise and we're at the banquet and the banquet wasn't quite done and he pulls me aside and he says , hey , we're gonna do a banquet September . And I was like , can I just get through tonight ? Man , just give me , just give me a minute here . And then you know the night went through and then you know Preston was ready to go and it's been great . He's been working really close with , you know , kim Newton , who is our Director of special events , and they've been working on this Texas banquet together and it's coming up September 30th of this year . It'll be in San Antonio area . Do you want to talk about that at all , sean ?

Shaun Olsberg

Yeah , absolutely so . Yeah , september 30th down in Holotes , texas , right outside of San Antonio , at the Padratis Ranch . I guess by the time this post , tickets will probably be sold out , but it's going to be an amazing event . We've got some really really great sponsors lined up and raffles , and it's just gonna be a really good night to expand the HHL mission to to South Texas and and really bring on or broaden our network quite a bit .

Chris Tetrault

It's , it's gonna be a great night , yeah and a big shout out to Lone Star pools . They're the event sponsor that night , the titling sponsors . So thank you for your commitment to the organization assisting . You know we , if you haven't checked out Lone Star pools yet , you should check them out . They do a lot of fiberglass pools . I was looking at their website and I'm kind of jealous of , yeah , the pools they got .

Shaun Olsberg

So I don't know if you've heard , but matter of fact , they're gonna donate a fiberglass pool . I'm not sure how we're gonna work that , but Kirk's gonna have his work cut out for him on the auction block .

Chris Tetrault

Yeah , right . So what is shipping and handling on that ? Yeah pretty awesome , awesome . Hey , todd , let's talk about that golf tournament here a little bit . You've been to the last two , I think , haven't you ? I ?

Todd Spindler

Did the last one and this will be my second one coming up here in Colorado , and so this year we've moved location To Arrowhead , which is a premier golf course here in Colorado that is highly sought out at to get to . It's a beautiful course , lots of red rocks and rolling . It's just . We're looking forward to it . It's gonna be a great time . We got some good help coming , a good good sponsorship coming with it , and we're looking forward to seeing everybody out there . Tickets are on sale and maybe by the time this podcast airs we might be sold out , but we hope check us out at least , and even if you aren't able to golf too .

Chris Tetrault

You can always check out their sponsorships too . They have a quite a variety of different ways to sponsor them and support the actual fundraiser out there . This will help fun with their upcoming trips and different things they do out there .

National Events and Law Enforcement Support

Chris Tetrault

I don't know if you know this , but Dale Mord with Rogue Productions , he's a huge golfer . He was , he was gonna be a pro and then he realized that he sucked at golf . That's right , shots fired . You're welcome , dale . And I actually told him that it was at Arrowhead and he's like oh , that's a phenomenal course , you know , and he actually travels out to Colorado and he golfed at the sanctuary , at the sanctuary .

Shaun Olsberg

Yep , could be .

Chris Tetrault

Yeah , not too far from there really . But he and I told him about your arrowhead one and he's like yeah , that's a phenomenal course . So that's pretty cool that you know . Someone from me so to here who likes to travel and golf quite a bit knows that golf course and it's Several states away , so that's kind of cool .

Todd Spindler

So can we expect to see him out here and have a good chat with him ? I hope so , that's .

Chris Tetrault

An August , and they'd be kind of cool for us to get him out there to do some filming of that too for your guys's next year . So it's not off the table .

Shaun Olsberg

Yeah , but he wouldn't end up working , he'd be golfing . So yeah , dale , never really actually works .

Chris Tetrault

He just pretends . Sorry , dale . Yeah , so with that event let's .

Shaun Olsberg

Let's touch on a few . We've been on the national , on the national stage . We've we've spent some time doing some national events over over the last five months , I guess , to include the enter the , the annual NRA convention that was held in Indianapolis , indiana . That was a great event . We got to get out in front of a Whole another group of folks they're in Indiana that travels around different each year , next year in Dallas . So we we plan on attending that as well . We went to Washington DC for police week this year . That was just a tremendous event to connect with the law enforcement side of the house and we made a lot of friends and a lot of connections through there , sharing the mission of hometown here outdoors on the on the east coast and from officers all over the country .

Chris Tetrault

Yeah , and we actually have a full and tired dedicated podcast . Just a police week . We just recorded it not long ago and , for those who don't know , police week is every May 15th is the law enforcement Memorial Day and they hold events out in Washington DC For law enforcement . Those who have sacrificed so much are giving everything to us and we had a team of us that went out there . Sean flew up , dan Meyer flew out from the West Coast , I drove there with Andy with our trailer , with our merch , and then my wife also came to help us too , which was pretty awesome , and we spent our time at tent city for two days and it's a very large vendor area where it's law enforcement supporting businesses and it's pretty awesome and it's been . It was severely downsized this year , but it was still awesome and the shoulder to shoulder .

Shaun Olsberg

Yeah , and it wasn't just selling merchandise . You know we did a lot of that . But being right connect with every one of those Folks that that purchased an item was pretty cool .

Chris Tetrault

Our goal was to reach as many police officers as possible and share what we do for mental health in the outdoors . A lot of different police officers Talked about their agency and how they want to utilize what we do and work with us for that type of thing , and a lot of times when we were done talking to them , they enjoyed our mission and what we're doing so much that they'd walk into the booth and buy some swag to help support us and help drive our mission . So Definitely was not the main goal to go there and sell a bunch of stuff you know that helps but we had a bunch of individuals that wanted to hear what we did and it was awesome . I mean , we met people in listen to the podcast , but we met people in the Secret Service there people from LA , detroit , chicago , aruba , germany , sweden , where else ? Sean .

Shaun Olsberg

Canada . I mean all the agencies were there . Fbi .

Chris Tetrault

Yeah , the alphabet soup , yeah , all of them .

Shaun Olsberg

Yeah . So it was really great , really great .

Chris Tetrault

Yeah , you got to listen to podcast , though it goes more in depth about . You know what the National Law Enforcement Memorial fund does our friends Slater sits on that board as well . Go into the candlelight vigil on the National Mall , look at the Capitol with the wash to monument behind us and Getting the tour DC to , and just what our thoughts were with that . It's a let me good podcast we listen to and if you haven't gone to police week , you should really get out there and try it . Even if you haven't been to DC , go out there and take a look . They have the National Law Enforcement Memorial wall . You know where . They have the names of individuals who who were taken from us too soon have their names on it across the street from the National Law Enforcement Memorial Museum and there's a lot of rich history and they're Learning about law enforcement where it's been and where it's gone . So listen to that podcast .

Shaun Olsberg

It's pretty cool , yeah . And then another the event that we we attended was there relentless defender gala relentless defender foundation gala down in Galveston , Texas . This year a few of us H2O staff members were able to go down there and Meet a lot of the law enforcement community and the law enforcement community supporters in the in the Texas area . There was a national present presence there as well and and that was a that was a really nice time to be down there and and spread the spread the word of HHO as well .

Chris Tetrault

And then they support us . We try to support them back as much as we can .

Shaun Olsberg

Yeah , yeah , absolutely . I Think I read , you know , the relentless defender foundation has given away 2.1 million dollars back to supporting law enforcement and the fallen , you know . So Just just an outstanding foundation . Another great , another great organization is Safari Club International . Safari Club International West Texas chapter in Out in middle in Texas . They host a event every year . It's their annual fundraiser and they invited HHO to be a to come and have a set up a booth , and so we were there With our merchandise and we were able to talk to a lot of their supporters and really meet a lot of great contacts through them . They've been a great supporter annually , monetary and as well as just supporting and lining up ranches and and Trips for our members and then also you guys acquired some assistance for the CVMA down there too .

Phil Ewert - Narrator

We'll return to the podcast in just a moment , but first hometown hero outdoors would like to thank the following companies that support HHO and our mission Relentless defender apparel and gear , silencer , central suppressors , best defense armory and range in Forest Lake , minnesota , and Tito's handmade vodka . We thank them for their support . Now back to our podcast .

Shaun Olsberg

Yes , absolutely the CVMA combat veterans Motorcycle association association . Yes , I had to get all those words in the right order .

Chris Tetrault

I know so many acronyms that we use .

Shaun Olsberg

I got this glass of bourbon , so it's making it a little alright , easier , easier , yes , so let's touch on them a little bit . So the San Antonio area has just exploded when it comes to hometown hero outdoors support they in that chapter has . They interviewed us , so we kind of had to audition for the spot and I guess we did a good job because they selected hometown hero outdoors as their one beneficiary For the year of 2023 . So all the money that they're raising are a good portion of it there . They they're going to donate it to hometown hero outdoors to further our mission .

Chris Tetrault

In the CVMA is national .

Shaun Olsberg

Absolutely everywhere

John's Story and Outdoor Adventures

Shaun Olsberg

.

Chris Tetrault

Actually , one of one of the individuals that we did a video on is out of the CVMA and we . He was on your Texas hunt .

Shaun Olsberg

Yeah , yeah , john man , john down in Houston , you know what he just got in a motorcycle accident but thank God he's okay , his wife's okay , they she had a minor surgery and he's all scraped up and I think his , his Egos hurt a little bit .

Chris Tetrault

Yeah , sometimes the pride dates the biggest hit out of everything . Yeah , but yeah , I'm Lyle , yes .

Shaun Olsberg

John Lyle , good man , business owner down there , veteran , and yeah , he's also part of part of that organization .

Chris Tetrault

Yeah . So John , we did a video with him on the youth hunt . We followed him in a sun griffin while we're down in D Leon area and it's a little over 20 minute video but it's actually really awesome . Sit and watch and if you haven't watched it yet , take the time . He gets to hear about John and his history with being in the military and also being in law enforcement and losing one of its closest friends along forcement on while on duty , and he talks about those struggles and things that he's been through and what the outdoors does for him and then also , on top of that , being able to spend that time with this ungriffen .

Chris Tetrault

You can really see the bond and the connection that these two have and you know , as a father myself , just watching these two interact together , just it's an amazing sight to be seen , watching them and then being able to harvest some deer . You know , and not gonna completely spoil the whole thing , but you know , part of the hunt is not just spending time with the kids in the outdoors but , you know , teaching them to hunt . And sometimes kids aren't quite ready yet and that's okay . I think that just being out there together is the important part and then hearing your kids say that they're not ready . There's a huge part too , and when you watch the video you'll see that where and how John reacts to that , and I think he handled it incredibly well . And you know , I should take a page out of his book when it comes at my first time taking kids hunting , aren't you shooting that , dare you know ? But that's not how I really am .

Chris Tetrault

But , it's a good video .

Shaun Olsberg

Yeah , it was great . Yeah , go back and watch it for sure . Our YouTube channel is loaded with with great content . Go over there and and take a look .

Chris Tetrault

Todd , you got any other big hunts that you're gonna try and do out there this year ? You got any of those prong horns you're gonna go after ?

Todd Spindler

for personal . Yes , I'm doing a prong horn hunt and a big meal deer for the state , for HHO . We're doing an elk hunt and two deer hunts , and sorry , two elk hunts and one deer hunt and we're working on another , that's they haven't fully developed it yet . It's an archery hunt . Some more details to follow , if we can kind of get some of the commitments finalized , and Should be a good time .

Chris Tetrault

You know this podcast will come out after the rodeo is done , but you should talk about the rodeo quick . You know , even if , even if it's past and people missed it , they can look at it for next year , and we'll be there too , I hope .

Todd Spindler

We hope so . So the we're gonna be at the pike speaker bus rodeo . It's a large event here in the pike speak region , brings in a lot of Support for a military and the military organization as a whole and it's a . It's a rodeo that happens every night , starting on Tuesday night and goes through till Saturday , and the pro rodeo association is there . So it's a . It's a pretty neat event that we'll be able to go and To be out there and showcase what HHO is and meet the people and see everybody that's out there . But more importantly , we just want to get out there and show the community who we are and that we're we're here to support our team . I .

Chris Tetrault

Wish I could go to that . My schedule got too full . My intent was to come out , but you know a lot going on , you know , and trying to spread out that information time .

Todd Spindler

Understand .

Chris Tetrault

We'll be a good time . Well , a couple of really cool things we got going on is we have another main moose hunt that's coming up . That's with Veterans of Field Foundation with Dave Hentash up in Bridgewater , maine . I went on that one last year with Brent Fowler . I was there to help him out and help with rogue and unfortunately weren't . He wasn't able to harvest a moose , but this year Hopefully the new recipients is has some luck .

Chris Tetrault

Kind of a cool thing too that we began to implement this last year was our field staff of the year . We started nominating field staff and and their accomplishments per quarter and we would pick one individual to be recognized as the quarters field staff and we implemented a program on top of that which helps us pick the field staff of the year which we At the annual board meeting voted on who the next person would be . It was our first recipient of the field staff of the year and there's actually Mitch Bolin out of Minnesota here who's done a lot for the team and he's been with us since beginning . He's actually built some spear house , fish houses for us that go out on the ice and drop down on the ice and do some Spearing . He most recently built some brand new homemade cabinets for me , for the Minnesota team , to when the helps hold our merchandise , and they're very handy , individual and he's doing golf trips and he's constantly doing stuff . But the cool part is he's gonna actually go out on the main moose hunt to help out whoever the recipient is .

Chris Tetrault

This year . So big thank you to him for everything he's done for us . We're gonna , you know , pay his way to get out to Maine . He'll fly out there and we'll drive a car to bridge water . He'll get to meet our HHO member who gets to do the hunt and he's gonna help him out with it . He's gonna take people to spend some time on the the main Canadian border and hopefully help out with Pulling a moose out of the field for him . So Big shout out to Mitch for everything he's done . He actually threw the first pitch at our Saints baseball game here in Minnesota to , for a triple a came out long ago . So Sean's got some comments on Mitch .

Shaun Olsberg

Yeah , mitch is just an outstanding guy . I mean he does , he's very selfless and and he does a lot for the organization , just a . He's always been there and I hope he's here for a long , long time .

Chris Tetrault

Me too . Yeah , I mean we got a lot of good people in the organization . I mean these decisions are never easy , you know , and Just trying to figure out , you know , who would be best is it's not an easy task .

Shaun Olsberg

So thank goodness for votes so we have Keep on talking about some trips . You know we've had some . Really , our field staff had done some pretty amazing trips over the last year .

Outdoor Adventures and Opportunities

Shaun Olsberg

I want to touch on Oklahoma , oklahoma lead to reveal . He just he just stood up the state less than a year ago and he's been just hustling to get the word out in Oklahoma . Lee followed me from South Carolina . He actually he was a field staff in South Carolina and took a job opportunity in Oklahoma , and so when he got here I might have pushed him a little bit and he mean you water boarded him until he said okay .

Shaun Olsberg

Well , I didn't necessarily be Todd . On the other hand , todd had a lot to do with it .

Chris Tetrault

Okay , Todd waterboard .

Todd Spindler

Maybe I might be a little guilty in that .

Chris Tetrault

I appreciate you being guilty in that yeah , so he brought you know .

Shaun Olsberg

So Lee came on board and he's been doing nothing but good things . He's done some duck duck hunts , some goose hunts and and he did the first ever HHO spoon bill fishing trip and I think he's knocked out a couple of those since two or three . Yeah , and what ? It's just a really good opportunity , a very unique opportunity , a species of fish that Not a whole lot of people have have a chance to go after in parole , he was a fundraising stud for a national raffle for a bit there .

Shaun Olsberg

Yeah , he just he wants to . He wants to get members outdoors and he's gonna do anything he can that to do it .

Chris Tetrault

I'm just gonna put him in precedent of competition alone next year and they'll be able to do the whole raffle for us . I think it worked out pretty good . Yeah , no , it was awesome . We actually came up to the banquet , to which I was incredibly happy , for I've talked to him , you know , and passing informally online , however , and Sean brought him up , and you know as our banquet goes . It's always stressful leading up to the day of , and Sean showed up the house with Lee and I'm sure they saw me in the look of my face , but these two stepped up huge and help , help carry me through the rest of the day and make sure that everything was just kept telling me everything's to be okay , but I really appreciate . That's the first time I get to meet Lee , so that was really awesome , just to his cool Candor and just being relaxed , and that was awesome .

Shaun Olsberg

Yeah , absolutely Colorado . Our Colorado team just did a survival camp , which was pretty awesome . I'm really looking forward to seeing , seeing some more or hearing some more about that that was . That was a really unique trip . Texas was able to get to Deserving veterans , both purple hearts . I believe one or one was a purple heart and another one was a Just an awesome dude . Anyway , they both went on access hunt . I don't want to even spill the beans here , all right , but we have . We have some , some future stuff coming up and we'll go more in-depth with those those hunts , but those were pretty special to hunt trophy access down in Texas .

Chris Tetrault

Very unique critter . Yeah pretty awesome , pretty awesome animal though I mean there's a bunch of stuff . I mean just everyone's thinking outside the box and doing different things . You know , I actually I'm hoping I plan some hot air balloon trips coming up here man .

Chris Tetrault

Minnesota Wisconsin border . Go over the St Croix River up by Hudson no , sean , kind of where your old stomping grounds are , and I'd like to take out some people Doing hot air balloon up there . I think they'd be kind of cool . I know there's some other kayaking trips that are being planned . South Dakota Just put out a elk hunt that's gonna be in central northern South Dakota , which isn't be pretty awesome .

Shaun Olsberg

Yeah , yeah , that landowner for that , for that ranch he owns I think it's 6,000 acres over in South Dakota . He's got an elk herd over there and he wants to give away a trophy elk hunt to a Deserving veteran with a disability or an impairment and he just wants to get back . He's a Vietnam era Person himself and he had a lot of friends that he lost over in Vietnam . This is gonna be a 100% gentleman's hunt .

Chris Tetrault

It's gonna be an amazing time for For one individual rogue will be there on that one too , so that'll be a good video for people to watch once . Once everything's done , it'll be good .

Shaun Olsberg

Yeah , and we have . We have stuff coming up all over , all over the country . One that one that catches the cop Got me was the in North Dakota , our state director up in North Dakota , dan . He is going to host a number of folks over in the boundary waters and they're gonna do a five or six day canoe trip over there . It's gonna be a parent and child each , so that's gonna be a very special time Bent on the water .

Chris Tetrault

Yeah , the boundary waters . If you don't know what it is , the boundary waters , can you ? Wilderness area on the Minnesota northern end , next to Canada . It's a very large area and there's a little bit of a boundary and there's some restrictions in some lakes and then some of them . There's a lot of restrictions and it's pretty basic . Some of them have more of a . Some of the lakes have restrictions on how many horsepower motors you can have with for your boats and then , as you get further in and your portage , carry your gear and your boat to the next lake .

Chris Tetrault

Yes , you carry your gear and your boat to the next lake and you , what you carry in , what you carry out except for the food that you consume and it's supposed to be as natural as possible to what you found it in . And as you get further in and more remote , sometimes you barely even start to stop seeing people . You know , and it's what it says , it's , it's wilderness area and you know the to you and the animals , the critters and fishing and it's just absolutely gorgeous and pristine waters and I used to get to go . I did a work trip up there once a year with some of my Co-workers and I was up there with Boy Scouts and then some personal trips , and it's just a place that will always hold a special place in my heart . So it's pretty awesome that Dan's gonna have some other families and their kids experience it . It's , it's beautiful .

Shaun Olsberg

Yeah , absolutely it's . It's one of the most gorgeous place on the on the earth , that's for sure and the fishing is just phenomenal .

Chris Tetrault

Then it's just the water so clean . I mean , honestly , every now and then you'll see an airplane fly by Super high altitude . Maybe you'll hear it , but other than that , like you got tonight , is that's gonna be the lot of thing going on Right there . It's just so quiet , but it's a , it's a beautiful place to be . But , yeah , that'll be awesome . Good for them .

Texas Deer Management and Fundraiser

Shaun Olsberg

Another big trip that that's playing planned down in Texas . They have teamed up with the Harris Ranch down at Ubaldi . Harris Ranch is a 30,000 acre low fence ranch . It is huge and Beautiful land . There's no cattle , it's all wildlife management , and so we have the opportunity to take about 40 HHO members down there to help with the deer management program into harvest does and coal bucks , and so all of our members gonna be able to bring meat home and fill their freezers just plumb full .

Chris Tetrault

I just learned what a coal buck or a cold deer was when I was in Texas last time . Oh , I shot a cold deer . I was like what in the hell is a cold deer ? Yeah so what is it Sean ? What is a cold deer ?

Shaun Olsberg

So a management deer , a coal , a management deer is something . Maybe . Maybe it doesn't have the genetics that is gonna grow into a trophy , and so they watch these deers grow . They watch the deer grow and especially on those big branches , they pretty much document every deer with horns , that's , that's there , and they watch them as they grow and they , they can tell if , what genetics that that deer is carrying and if they're gonna grow into a trophy class deer or not . So if they're not , they will . They will harvest those deer early before , maybe when they're two or three , four years old , versus Letting those deer roam and feed until they're 10 years old , where that may reach a trophy class deer . The genetics , the genetics .

Chris Tetrault

Yeah , Yep , yeah . That's a pretty awesome opportunity down there for everyone . I know you guys also have a fundraiser that's going on for that .

Shaun Olsberg

We do , yeah . So there's a fundraiser Going on right now . They want to sell . We're selling a thousand tickets at a hundred dollars a piece and we're gonna pick . There's gonna be three winners . First prize is gonna get 160 the 179 inch white tail , oh yeah . Second prize is up to 150 inch white tail and third is up to 140 inch white tail .

Shaun Olsberg

Still , still yeah , and these deer , you know , most of time in Texas , white tails , the ones that ran right around my farm . They're small , they don't have a lot of fat on them . You know you , you get five tags for a reason , you know , because you got to fill your freezer .

Shaun Olsberg

Right and it's not like those northern deer , but down there those deer are fed and managed so well . They feed cotton seed which is high in fat , high in protein , it's all Nutrients , and plus they then they have natural grazing . And so those deer down there , when you , when you go to process them , they look like you just harvested a Wisconsin deer .

Chris Tetrault

Pretty , pretty wild , pretty incredible . Yeah , it's an awesome opportunity . We we think the Harris Ranch for the support . If you want to help support getting our veterans out , please reach out to us . You can email our information . Email at info at hometownheroetdoorsorg , texas . At hometownheroetdoorsorg . Reach out to any of our social media pages . But , like we said , one of three people out of a thousand entries . You know I might have several entries . You might win a couple , you know , but you might be able to harvest pretty awesome deer , you know . I mean , I'm pretty jealous and I'm gonna buy a couple myself and I'm gonna sell a few too .

Shaun Olsberg

This is a ranch that people are on a waiting list to get on . They only allow eight date Trophy deer harvested there a year .

Chris Tetrault

Wild . And then we get . We get to do three at least really beautiful deer for whoever wins .

Shaun Olsberg

Yeah and . And in return we get . We get to take 40 plus members To go out to this beautiful Place in their lodging is amazing . The food is sitting about . Everything's cooked over the campfire . I mean , it's just an amazing , amazing place .

Chris Tetrault

Yes , and this raffle is out of actually the state of Missouri . Just the raffle . Us help us out , but it's for the Texas hunt and you . We are running this raffle through . Was it October 1st , sean ?

Shaun Olsberg

No , we're gonna go through September 30th , so the you can still buy bank or tickets at the Texas banquet , but that next day is going to be the draw .

Chris Tetrault

Perfect , yeah . So reach out to us social media wise . Call one of your HHO field staff , you know we'll get you hooked up with tickets here . Hundred bucks and you might get a really awesome deer in southern Texas With that too . Also , I want to talk about the legacy trip a little bit here . We're starting to transition our time to finding the next person , but we will also have a podcast for the actual matts and hunt .

Chris Tetrault

We just did a podcast pre-recorded with the Mattsons and rogue productions about how the trip went to Alaska For Eric and for all of you that have been following it . You guys all over obviously know that Eric got his king Iter . So it took some time and there was a lot of work , but Eric persevered and he got it done . It was a lot of travel , being tired quite a bit and cold and wet , but you know we're Minnesota so it wasn't so bad . But we do have a podcast that specifically talks about that . The cool part that you'll get to hear about too is that the little nuances about the trip , little things , the ups and downs . Then also Eric got his bird back from his taxidermist at our banquet . So that was a pretty awesome turnaround from January At the end of March he got it back . Everyone got to see it . And then we also show the trailer for the Mattson documentary which will be coming out later this year .

Chris Tetrault

So another good podcast to go listen to and get the insight story about how everything happened , how it went down , how Eric felt , just everything . And then on top of that you have to watch documentary . We're looking for the next legacy trip recipient . We had it boiled on to five people and actually as of today , june 27th , I had emailed them the Mattsons to pick the next person . So we will have a new legacy trip recipient picked here shortly and likely before this podcast comes out . So we're pretty excited about the next legacy trip recipients . It was really hard to whittle it down . I know Sean got to go through . Maltaud wasn't on the board yet , but Reading through Maltaud was not easy to try to figure out your top five .

Shaun Olsberg

No , that's for sure . I mean every , every single submission was a deserving person . It's hard to it's hard to pick those well top five . I'm just thankful that I don't have to pick the one .

Chris Tetrault

Yeah , that's a tall , that's a tall order , and .

Shaun Olsberg

Yeah .

Chris Tetrault

I'm just I'm thankful for Eric and Megan and everything they've been through , but also to be involved in the legacy trip and pick the next person and I'm excited for them to get to meet them and Help be stewards of the legacy trip and help continue that with everyone else . But but with that , do you guys have any final or closing thoughts ? As we wrap up episode number one of season two ?

Shaun Olsberg

I I'd like to just Touch on a . We can't do this without volunteers and our volunteer staff . They are amazing people that that really put forth a lot of effort and and sacrifice a lot of time away from their , their family , their people To help others , and that's amazing . And right now we have we have a lot of opportunities out there as we expand this organization across the country we have . We have Opportunities in Florida , pennsylvania , kentucky , tennessee , oklahoma , montana , south Dakota , south Carolina , just to name a few . We're always looking for staff . So if being in the outdoors is something that you'd like to do and if you'd like to help others out and you're listening to this I'd please reach out to me or anybody else on the on the HHO staff . Hit our website at info at hometownherooutdoorsorg , and We'd love to talk with you and and see if you got a place here with it with our team totally Hit the head of the nail there .

Chris Tetrault

How about you , todd , got any last final comments ?

Todd Spindler

Not sure that I could top that , but I would say that I I do support everything that Shawn just said , and , for me , I didn't realize what I was missing in my life until I came to HHO and had the opportunity to share these adventures and these experiences with our members and our staff . And so , for me , while there's a lot of work involved in it , there's so much more revolt , more reward involved as well , and so , if it does include some potential waterboarding with the future staff members , so If you're interested , you know contact me . I can help you out with maybe that discussion if you need that . But other than that , you know , I just look forward to this next year and it's gonna be a fun year totally yeah , and just Echo both of these guys .

Chris Tetrault

Thank you to our volunteers , our sponsors , anyone who supports us , you know . If you know someone who might be interested in what we do , please head over to our website or social media . You can find us on Facebook . We have closed groups there that are for our members that we serve . Also , we do a lot of trips on our Our website and then also , please listen to the and subscribe to our YouTube . In our podcast as well , we'll put out a lot of good information on here .

Chris Tetrault

I just got to give a big shout out to Phil Ewert with PE productions . Phil does a lot of our voiceover work and he's gonna be assisting me pretty heavily with our podcast coming up . He is our voiceover guy that you'll be hearing on the podcast too . So I've known Phil since 2008 , when I worked at the Federal Reserve Police , and We've had a very good friendship since then . So it's kind of a pretty awesome thing to be this far down the road and have him Be a part of the organization . So Thank you , phil , for everything that you do and helping out with us . But with that we're gonna conclude today's episode , our season two , episode number one , and everyone . Just please Share these episodes , spread the word , give people to us . We want to help them get outdoors , get off the couch , clear their mind , help out with mental health . That's our goal . So with that , I am going to conclude today's adventure and our podcast here . So thank you Sean , thank you Todd , I really appreciate you for being here and we will see everyone on the next episode .

Shaun Olsberg

You .