Air Force veteran Chuck Evancevich spent 12 years in a wheelchair with multiple sclerosis. In his honor, his widow and a close friend are building an accessible shooting range for disabled veterans in McGregor. ...
...Life in a wheelchair made his favorite pastime, hunting, nearly impossible. His wife signed him up for handicapped-accessible hunts, but waiting lists were long. The family took it upon themselves. Her brother built accessible hunting stands. His wheelchair would sink into the mud, so Tuna's friends — people like Bret Sample, a disabled Army veteran from McGregor, Minn. — would bring two pieces of plywood into the woods and leapfrog them over each other, forming a wheelchair bridge.
"He couldn't do much alone," said his widow, "but he could shoot."
When Evancevich died at 61 in October 2020, Sample strode up to his widow at the funeral. He offered his condolences and an idea: He wanted to build a gun and archery range for disabled veterans in honor of Evancevich.
"Under one condition," she replied. "That we're part of it."
Last winter, Sample bought 35 acres 6 miles north of McGregor. With the help of an untold number of veterans, friends and family, he cleaned it out. They hauled out 12 40-yard dumpsters of garbage and some 250 abandoned appliances. He formed a 501(c) (3) — Forgotten Heroes Ranges & Retreat — and got a permit for a gun range. They'll break ground May 27.
"This ain't mine, this ain't Brenda's," Sample said. "This is their home, the people in wheelchairs and the amputees. They'll use it, and they'll own it. That's the dream. The stuff we take for granted is the challenge for them. This is a place they can come relax — the mentorship, the camaraderie."
There's a 'Donation' page at the web page of the embedded link.
