PANAMA CITY — Some kindhearted huntsmen are making the dreams of terminally ill and disabled children come true — Camo Dreams, that is.
For a decade, Derek Fussell has had his well-tuned sights on helping children with limiting conditions make it into the woods for a real deal hunting experience.
“There are no deer tied up waiting for them,” Fussell said. “It’s a real hunt.”
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Fussell spends a lot of time in the wilderness as the regional biologist for Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). But his real passion is moonlighting as the founder of Camo Dreams, a nonprofit with a distinctive mission to bring some outdoorsy joy to children missing out on a normal childhood.
“We just kind of created the Camo Dreams family,” Fussell said.
Camo Dreams unofficially started with its first hunt in 2004 when Fussell was living in Albany, Ga. He was the local chapter chairman for the now disbanded conservation organization Quail Unlimited and was able to use industry contacts to set up a hunt for one client at a time.
In 2005, Fussell packed up his dream for a nonprofit and moved it with him back to his hometown of Panama City. Fussell and friend Chad Redding started drumming up interest in Fussell’s vision, picked a name and incorporated as a nonprofit in 2006.
“The thing I’m most proud of is that we’ve kind of taken baby steps and gotten bigger and better,” Fussell said.
Interest around the charitable venture grew as word of mouth conjured up more property owners and families eager to have the Camo Dreams experience.
It certainly didn’t hurt when Tombo Martin, a former Major League Baseball pitcher and star on the Outdoor Channel television show Buck Commander, sprinkled a little celebrity stardust on Fussell’s one-man operation.
Martin started donating his personal hunting ground in Jackson County and time as a promotional staffer to help Fussell give the nonprofit’s young clients memorable weekend hunting excursions.
“The guy has a huge heart,” Martin said of Fussell. “I think the whole outdoor community is that kind of group.”
Martin is pleased with the memories Camo Dreams has provided by taking these special children on hunts for deer, turkey, alligators, hogs and exotic hunts for non-native wildlife. Occasionally, they leave the camouflage and face paint at home to take kids on chartered fishing trips.
“It gives them a chance to forget about doctors and pain and medicine for a while,” Martin said. “Anything to broaden their minds and get them off of being sick.”
Camo Dreams has numerous sponsors that help in its mission by donating hunting equipment and gear, as well as time slots on property suited for hunting. Fussell said two guns had been donated to the cause, along with a crossbow and camera equipment from Buck Commander.
The nonprofit has taken children with conditions such as cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis and congenital heart defects to the woods for a chance to shoot prospective game.
Often, that requires creative accommodations.
Camo Dreams had a peanut wagon converted into a hunting condo for a cozy family hunting experience by adding a roof and tinted windows. It also has a door with a ramp for wheelchair access.
Fussell also invested in a sip-and-puff mechanism that allows hunters with limited motor skills to independently pull the trigger on a rifle or crossbow by signaling the device using the air pressure from a straw. Other modifications include propping the gun on a monopod or tripod, and even attaching a gun mount to electric wheelchairs or scooters when necessary.
“We take the kids out back and shoot guns or crossbows to prepare them for the hunt,” Martin said. “We try to teach them to not be afraid of the gun.”
A lot goes into preparing for a Camo Dreams weekend hunting adventure. The group provides for all expenses associated with food, camera crew to document the experience, meat processing, taxidermy and other memorabilia from the hunt.
The Camo Dreams network — which once could only handle one client and parent at a time — has grown to the capacity to have ten hunts in the works at any time.
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All, but one, of past hopeful hunters had a carcass trophy by the end of their hunt.
Fussell said he’s pretty happy with that success rate and hopes his little nonprofit will continue to grow with more funding and partnerships to provide weekends of doing for ill and disabled children what the Camo Dreams family does best.
“We strive to make each weekend for the kids as normal as possible,” he said. “We treat them like one of the guys.”