By Steve Weisman

For the past 22 years, Special Youth Challenge (SYC) Ministries of Iowa, with its headquarters near Webb, IA, has been offering youth with special challenges a chance to participate in and enjoy shooting sports in God’s great outdoors. SYC provides training and adaptive equipment to help the hunters achieve this goal through guided spring turkey and fall deer hunts at no cost to the hunters or their families.

A non-profit entity, SYC Iowa (SYCIowa.org) is a faith-based organization geared towards youth with special challenges and life-threatening diseases, along with adult disabled Veterans to provide no-cost guided hunting and training experiences using adaptive equipment to accommodate all individuals with all abilities.

According to Gary Van Wettering, long-time volunteer and current president elect and Shawn Peterson, a volunteer since 2003 and current board member, everything is on a total volunteer basis with 26 members on the SYC board. Van Wettering says, “Since SYC hunters have a physical challenge, special need or have had a life-threatening disease or injury, it takes a lot of volunteers to help. The SYC board members are truly motivated by the simple smile on a hunter’s face and enjoy creating the best environment possible for the hunters and their families. We have approximately 300 volunteers to develop sportsmen’s skills and enjoy God’s great outdoors.”

Peterson adds, “A lot of SYC’s growth is by word of mouth. SYC is 100% volunteer run and is funded by the overwhelming generosity of local residents and businesses. The average cost of $600 per hunter is totally taken care of by volunteer funding.”

SYC growth

Growth of the organization has been steady over the past 22 years. “The first hunt in 2002 included four youth hunters. Since that first deer hunt, SYC has hosted 22 deer hunts and 21 turkey hunts, hosting approximately 160 different kids and 40 disabled veterans. This equates to approximately 400 turkey hunts and 440 deer hunts with about 6,000 volunteers in those 840 hunts over those 22 years. A high percentage of our kids return subsequent years. It’s also interesting that a lot of them do not come from hunting parents. We have even had some who started as participants and have graduated to be volunteers.”

The average percentages of success include 30% for turkey hunts and 70% for deer hunts. Area landowners willingly open up their private land for the SYC hunts.

In addition to hunters from Iowa, hunters have come from the states of Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Events for the year

Three events are held each year: spring turkey hunt in April, fall deer hunt in late September and the annual SYC Fundraiser Banquet in November. Let’s take a look at the two hunts:

Spring Turkey Hunt in April and Fall Deer Hunt in late September.

Both hunts are fully guided and offer the youth themselves the opportunity to hunt. Each

hunter is assigned two guides. All blinds are accessible, and all firearms are tailored to the special needs of the youth, including a separate screen for scope use and a double trigger system for the guide and the hunter.

The equipment is custom developed to provide a safe experience. The target is displayed on an easy-to-see camera screen, the gun rests and swivels on a four-leg stand which helps to absorb the recoil. The Hunt Guide must have their trigger pressed before the Hunter presses their trigger for the gun to fire, which provides an increased level of safety.

Each hunt weekend takes place on a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Each hunt starts with gathering on a Friday to sight guns in and become familiar with the equipment. Following is a full banquet welcome dinner where hunters are recognized, and new hunters are given a camo bible, camo  clothing and a handmade SYC quilt. The Guest Speaker will present to end opening night.

Saturday is a full day of hunting with midday rest break and lots of food morning and evening. Sunday morning is the last opportunity to hunt with church service midmorning and recognition of hunters, guides, and volunteers to end the amazing weekend.

Lots of positives

So, what do the participants, guides and parents think about the SYC? Megan, a SYC hunter gives her top 11 reasons to love SYC with a chance to be with people like yourself, a family, hunting and a time to be with God as her top four.

Another hunter notes, “SYC has helped me realize that just because I am in a wheelchair

I can do things that I thought I couldn’t. SYC has helped me think of myself differently because I used to think that I couldn’t do many things, but SYC showed me I can. I think all kids should think about what they think, they think they can’t do and try to do it. I will always remember SYC for how they helped change my life.”

One of the hunter’s moms shares the joy of the entire weekend. “We had such a wonderful time. So much love and caring went into making the weekend so special. Mitchell has a memory he will cherish for a lifetime, and so do we. We look forward to coming back. Thank you for the fellowship and the time together.”

A volunteer mentor/guide reflects, “These hunters and volunteers for Special Youth Challenge Ministries are amazing and I am so glad I got the opportunity and hope there are many more to come.”

Becoming a part

According to both Van Wettering and Peterson, there are many ways people can help the SYC meet its purpose and mission. Van Wettering notes, “We are a Christian ministry, and people can simply pray for us. We can always use volunteer mentors or people on a SYC committee. Since we are a volunteer organization, we can always use people’s financial contributions.”

Here is an example of an area organization stepping up. According to board member Mary Jo Rapp of the Iowa Great Lakes Pheasants Forever (IGLPF) chapter, “Gary came to us in June and told us about their mission and organization. We believed that what SYC is doing fits in with our mission of promoting outdoor recreation and fostering youth engagement. After the meeting, we unanimously voted to contribute $5,000 to the SYC,”

Van Wettering says, “We have organizations like this, businesses and individuals who see the SYC as something important. They are all greatly appreciated!”

To learn more about SYC, go to SYCIowa.org or call 866-792-4692.

An example of equipment that has been Engineered by one of the SYC board members.

Members of the SYC Executive Committee receive a generous donation from IGL Pheasants Forever after the SYC property was flooded in June 2024. (L) Gary Van Wettering, SYC president-elect; Next to him, IGLPF member Mary Jo Rapp; Jaymie Bral, SYC president; Jay Rehnstrom, SYC treasurer; and Jacob Myers, SYC secretary.

SYC hunters and the guides during the deer hunt in September of 2024.