SCI Foundation Honored to Benefit from Media Event
Safari Club International 01.08.13
Safari Club International Foundation (SCI Foundation) is grateful to once again be the benefactor of the Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show Media Day at the Range. (www.media-day.com) Media Day at the Range takes place Monday, January 14, 2013 at the Boulder Pistol & Rifle Range in Boulder City, Nevada with over one thousand members of the outdoor and hunting media in attendance.
“The SCI Foundation is extremely thankful for the annual opportunity to congregate and share our hunter-conservationist mission with the members of the outdoor media,” said SCI Foundation President Joe Hosmer. “Every year the growth of the Media Day at the Range has surpassed all expectations for attendance and highlighting the mission programs of SCI Foundation.”
“Our programs, like Sportsmen Against Hunger which delivers millions of meals to the homeless through the donation of game meat to food shelters, would not get the recognition they deserve without the exposure provided during the Media Day at the Range,” added Bob Benson, Executive Director of SCI Foundation. “I also cannot imagine where a program like Sensory Safari would be in helping the visually impaired to ‘see’ wildlife through the sense of touch without the aid of events such as this. We applaud their efforts in making this day such a resounding success.”
Media Day at the Range is owned and operated by Triple Curl Public Relations and Advertising and CMG Marketing and Events. It offers exhibitors, such as Hornaday, Trijicon, Cabela’s and Swarovski Optik, unprecedented access to the media to spotlight their products. Over one thousand members of the media are pre-registered for next years’ event, making it the largest to date.
Protecting hunters’ rights and promoting wildlife conservation, SCI’s two areas of focus, historically has been the interest of hundreds of individuals long before SCI was established. But how did SCI as an organization begin?
Forty years ago, there were many safari clubs across the country made up of local, unaffiliated groups of hunters. One such was Safari Club of Los Angeles, which was formed in April 1971 by forty-seven individuals. In early 1972, an out-of-towner from a similar club in Chicago attended one of the monthly Wednesday night meetings, and it was decided that the L.A. club should attempt to combine with the one in Chicago to make it an affiliated chapter. The founder of Safari Club of Los Angeles, C.J. McElroy, went to the Windy City and instituted the new chapter.
Eleven months after the formation of Safari Club of Los Angeles, on March 9, 1972, the name was changed officially to Safari Club International. SCI continued to reach out to other independent safari clubs throughout the United States in an effort to combine them into a single overall organization.
Today, interest in SCI’s two primary missions has grown a worldwide network. Subsequent involvement and promotion of these missions is rooted in each of our 55,000 members, supported through each of our 190 membership chapters found across the globe, and put into action by government representatives and personnel both nationally and internationally.
In this way, we can encourage an appreciation for nature and wildlife so that conservation efforts remain strong, while also fighting to protect our rich hunting heritage. Big changes can be achieved through the endeavors of many who are united in a mission – the mission of Safari Club International.
