“My [gun] club is my biggest supporter.”
In January, the Taunton Marksmanship Unit from Taunton, Massachusetts added $18,136.34 to their MidwayUSA Foundation Team Endowment. This was the largest amount of money received for one single team in our first month of 2019. In an effort to help more shooting teams grow their endowment, we want to shine the light on successful teams. We have added another $500 to the Taunton Marksmanship Unit endowment just for telling us about how they achieved so much success. Our plan is to do the same for 11 more youth shooting teams throughout the year, featuring a new team each month.
Taunton Head Coach, Kevin Winters, gives credit to his local gun club for his shooting team’s success. “My [gun] club is my biggest supporter,” said Kevin. “Older club members have great pride in having a great team so it’s important to try to keep the club in the loop on our success. Many of the [gun club] members are parents or grandparents and they love to see someone succeed.”
When asked what Kevin would tell other teams about taking on the task of growing their endowment, he said, “Getting started can be the toughest part but the MidwayUSA Foundation match allowed us to grow our endowment pretty quick. I really never thought it was possible to grow that fast.” Taunton Marksmanship Unit has over $370,000 in their MidwayUSA Foundation Team Endowment which can offer a cash grant of over $18,500 every single year. The team uses raffles and portions of gun club membership fees to raise funds for their endowment. In addition to financial success, Taunton has grown from 2 advanced coaches to 8 advanced coaches and many of their youth shooters are performing at a Division 1 level.
When we talk to shooting teams about how they have grown their endowment, we hear different stories and ideas but they all have a common key to success and that is community support. That support may look different in each community. It’s important to get out there and just educate the members of your community about your shooting team and it’s MidwayUSA Foundation endowment. A local gun club is a great place to start!