4-H Shooting Sports National Championships kick off in Grand Island

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (KSNB) – Hundreds of 4-H shooters are in Grand Island on Monday ready to compete for a national championship in their respective event.

Forty states are represented in the field this year. The Heartland Shooting Park and Fonner Park are the backdrop for the national event. Everything from .22 millimeter pistols, to muzzleloaders will be put to the test this week.

Grand Island Tourism Director Brad Mellema said this event is just one way Grand Island shows it can put on big events at a high level.

“We do big events as well as anyone in the country, the facilities that we have, the hospitality we have, the volunteers that we have, the corporate support that we have,” Mellema said. “You look at the city of Grand Island, and the Heartland Public Shooting Park, and you look at Fonner Park, and you look at Hornady Manufacturing now managing this. We’re a shooting-sports town. It’s part of our identity and to have events like this and such as this, we see a real growth trajectory for these kinds of things on into the future.”

Mellema said events like the championships are major drives for business in the city, and when one of them doesn’t happen, it can have major implications for the city’s economy.

“We noticed it a few years back when COVID hit and these things began to peel off,” Mellema said. “We began to understand the importance that these things have. Even just one of these that would fall off the calendar had a huge economic impact for the businesses and hotels in our community.”

There is a lot of hard work that goes into this event for the teens that take part. Participants are only allowed to compete in an event once, so if they want to come back the next year, they have to master a new event.

Scott Stuhr, Nebraska native and championship coordinator, said even with the heavy emphasis on shooting sports, that’s not the main focus for 4-H.

“4-H is a positive youth-development program, these kids are learning sportsmanship, they’re developing a spark of something they feel a lot of interest in,” Stuhr said. “Shooting is actually secondary. We like to say we’re not developing champion shooters were developing champion kids in 4-H and that’s exactly what we do. These kids are learning life skills, right? How to work well with others, goal setting, all those types of wonderful opportunities.”

After a teen takes part in the shooting championships they could become an ambassador for the yearly event. For Elisha Staggers, the talents she learned, outside of shooting sports, in 4-H have helped her in her role as an ambassador.

“The life skills that I have learned is public speaking and also like being a leader, going out and talking to people, especially in the position that I do hold right now,” Staggers said. “It’s really important to have those life skills.”

Competition for this event will start on Tuesday morning, with the event wrapping up on Friday.

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