When Monte Tucker and Paul Hightower came together to create the Red Dirt Shooting Club six years ago, they could not anticipate the group’s rapid growth.
After all, their objective at the time was pretty simple — to give Beckham County kids a place to learn shooting sports while spending time with their families.
“This was always about, and still is, spending time together as families while passing on traditions to our kids. But, in the meantime, we adults tricked the kids into learning a lot of excellent life skills,” committee member Tucker joked.
Tucker is known for that wry sense of humor, but his commitment to upholding western Oklahoma values is earnest.
The Red Dirt Shooting Club set out to create successful student-athletes in shooting sports, and they have exceeded their wildest expectations.
In those short six years, the group has already produced eight male and female shooters who have received college scholarships. Those achievements have drawn more families to their practices.
“Well, we never want to turn away any kid willing to learn and compete,” Tucker explained. “But, we have grown so rapidly that we are running out of real estate. To keep this going, we realized that we need to have a new clubhouse.”
Tucker said the group already felt grateful for their original clubhouse, a trailer donated by a local oilfield company.
Tucker’s letter to local businesses explained that the clubhouse is now “quite simply, crumbling down around us.”
Their facility is located a few miles north of Sayre. They are launching their fundraising effort to build a new clubhouse, which they estimate will cost approximately $25,000.
Thanks to generous corporate and individual sponsorships, the Red Dirt Shooting Club is already more than halfway there with $16,000 raised.
All donations are tax-deductible.
“We are launching a fundraising campaign to raise the necessary funds to build a new clubhouse and restroom facility,” Tucker stated.
This will include the new clubhouse and restroom facilities. The group is mindful of making it handicap accessible.
In 2022 alone, the club threw more than 50,000 competition and practice targets out of their two trap houses and practice skeet field.
“Our mission statement is, ‘To provide the public, especially the youth of our community, a place to enjoy shotgun sports,’” Tucker wrote.
Even with their current modest facilities, Tucker said that the group sees evidence of money spent in the community.
“We have held some shoots out there, which will only grow when we get a new clubhouse. We aren’t at a place where we have out-of-town families staying the night, but we have had them come in for our shoots. We notice cups in our trash cans from our local businesses, so these people are spending money in Sayre. The community will get dividends on this investment in the coming years as we can hold more events. However, we need this new clubhouse to train with our kids. It brings us a sense of pride whenever we see a Sayre or a Beckham County kid go out and get a scholarship. As families, we get to pass on the traditions we were raised with. It is a win for us all,” Tucker stated.
The Red Dirt Shooting Club asks interested businesses and individual sponsors to reach out.
“Zig Ziegler said, ‘If you aim at nothing, you miss every time,” Tucker quipped.
Tucker can be reached at [email protected] or (580)515-4477.
