The Wounded Warrior Retreat Banquet which was held at Beaver Creek Plantation raised more than $50,000 dollars to help provide funds to provide outdoor activities for Wounded Warrior events during the upcoming year.  Ike and Jerry Webb, owners and operators of Beaver Creek graciously host the event annually, and it provides a large share of the annual operations budget.  Wounded Warriors are able to participate in and enjoy outdoor events including deer hunting, quail hunting, turkey hunting dove and pheasant shoots, and salt and fresh water fishing at different locations in Georgia.  Most of Warriors attending come from Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee and Florida, although some have come from as far away as Arkansas. 

Locally a quail hunt is held annually at Lamar and Edie Smith’s farm, and it includes a noontime meal of smoked ribs by VFW Post 7764.  Often there is at least one hunter in a motorized wheelchair and several hunters with limited mobility due to wounds suffered in combat that are able to participate. U.S. Army Sergeant Major Pat Corcoran who was wounded by an IED explosion in Afghanistan and paralyzed from the waist down seldom misses the event at the Smith farm, and he is a competitive shooter.  He doesn’t like to miss.  If he can get his track chair properly aligned, he can make the shot.  He is one of many hunters that take advantage of the opportunity to get outdoors and hunt. 

John Wingate and Jackie Trim have made the hunt for the past two years. John was in the U.S. Army in Vietnam and wounded southwest of Saigon in 1968. He was point man on a night mission and got caught in an ambush.  A bullet nearly cut his femoral artery, and he spent 13 months recovering in Walter Reed Hospital.  Jackie Trim was an U.S. Marine tunnel rat for a time and was wounded twice in Vietnam.  Both were exposed to Agent Orange. Jackie and John were avid quail hunters when they were growing up in Reidsville, and the hunt at the Smith farm rekindles good memories. Pat, Jackie, and John are good examples of wounded warriors that get to enjoy time outdoors as a result of WWR.  Thursday night, Jackie and Lisa Trim were in the audience during the Banquet along with many other supporters from Reidsville and Tattnall County. 

The organizers of the Beaver Creek Banquet would like to thank those who have generously supported the efforts to raise funds. Keeping the dream alive and supporting those warriors who gave so much would be impossible without such generous financial support.