Bunny in the City: Clay shoot targets Abilities Unlimited

 Abilities Unlimited held its second annual Ronnie Floyd Memorial Clay Fun Shoot at Forest City Gun Club on May 13.

With my best friend Ann Hallowell as my personal golf cart driver, we arrive at the elite gun club and look for Terry Coleman - a board member of Abilities Unlimited who invited me here last year. The gracious engineering consultant is talking with his good friend and fellow board member Richard Barrow, but easily poses with Reggie Sykes and Mark Schreiber.

After insisting on a pic of Mark with his wife Tina, he eases his wheelchair through the crowd outside to hear Forest City Gun Club General Manager Zach Guerrettaz give the ground rules of "rifles are over and under, load in the stand, two shells only at all times and eye and ear protection is mandatory."

Zach is the direct, sort of gruff guy that probably doesn't expect to get asked how much weight he has lost, but he looks so good I felt it necessary to comment on it. Shaking his head, he heads back inside where Aerotek's Emily Turknett and Kyle Stephenson are snacking down on fresh fried chicken.

With a few more pics of  Seth Cannon, Tad Dillon, Luke Dorman and Russ Aldridge, I finish with Dick Berman's Thunderbolt Guns team of Ralph Maggioni, Judy Piros and Greg Landers.

While gathering up a snack plate, I see Penny Lightfoot streak by and manage to pause her for a photo with Teresa Ries, Mack McCuen and Katie Hodges before asking where my golf cart is.

More than 80 competitors have taken off and we are stranded! Using the "forgiveness over permission" theory, Ann and I grab our new friend Brandie Starr and take off. The director of Blessingdale's is a character! Absolutely gorgeous with blonde curls, a sparkling headband and cowboy boots, the former pageant queen competed in the rodeo circuit in barrel racing and roped calves. And, yes, gentlemen, this beauty queen is single!

Heading down the long dirt road to the first station, I discover that I am enveloped in a cloud of dust so dense that we have to slow down and creep up to watch Jim Myrick and his team shoot. Waiting for the dust to settle I grab Jim's team members, Harry Woolley, Jackie Johnson and auto repair king Dale Bouchillon.

Waiting for me to quit talking, Ann and Brandie escort me to the next station where Michael Caputo is trying to hold his own with Janet Nickens, Kathy Warden and co chair Lyn McCuen.

Lyn, mother of Mack, an Abilities Unlimited athlete,  tells me that today's shoot helps fund Special Olympics trips and helps with physical therapy for people with a disability who have lost their insurance and can now attend the Anderson Cohen gym for $10 a month.

Proud to learn my something new, we cruise down the wooded path and grab Mason Bragg and Jeremy Summerell before they shoot with Eric Shearouse and Paul Tuttle.

By now we are all covered in a fine layer of dirt so we head back to the events room where Robert Armstrong Jr. is waiting to show me his son Robert's "centerfold" pic for the United Way of the Coastal Empire 2015 Annual Report. Both guys are so stoked about the pic that I unpack my camera to get this last awesome shoot before tracking Penny

Passionate and proud, Penny tells me that today's shooting clays event will tremendously help "provide personalized progressive exercise programs for children and adults that are born with or have acquired a disability." With a waiting list to join the 40-person Special Olympics team and the 80-person exercise program, I have a feeling that this "orange clay pigeon shoot" will make this list even longer!

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