George and Rita Kalmon, parishioners ….

George and Rita Kalmon, parishioners at Holy Rosary Parish in Medford, donate a bow deer hunt to honor and give back to a veteran every year for the Holy Rosary Celebration for Education Fundraiser. Veterans from Holy Rosary Parish are entered by friends and family into a drawing. The Kalmons also make a monetary donation to the school in the veteran’s honor.

This year’s winner was Joe Ellis, a veteran from the Air Force during the Vietnam era who served in Turkey.

Joe was a bowhunter for years. He didn’t expect to be able to have this experience. Age, time and wherewithal make it a little harder, and he had kind of given up hunting.

The day of the hunt came in September, the early part of bow season. George provided everything, all Ellis needed was a camouflage jacket. They took some time to target practice, Rita drove them out to the stand in the UTV, leaving them with some fresh baked cookies. George and Joe both climbed up the blind and were just having a ball with quiet conversation, which only lasted about 45 minutes. The deer showed up. Ellis shot it and got it. They shared a cookie to toast the harvest, climbed out of the blind, called for a ride back, loaded up the deer and George took care of everything else which included processing and packaging.

Ellis was just happy to be able to hunt again and as every hunter can attest to it brought back so many fond memories of his hunting on the farm in Minnesota with family and uncle.

“It was a super treat, most enjoyable and George just treated me super,” Ellis said.

Thanks to the successful hunt, Ellis is enjoying venison steak medallions with his eggs these days for breakfast.