Maegan Weiler walked away from her first bear hunting trip with a story that’d be hard to top. She shot a 300-pound black bear after waiting 13 hours to get her chance. She also happens to be blind.
Weiler, 14, was able to take her shot thanks to Youth Outdoors Unlimited, YOU, a nonprofit that plans hunting and fishing trips for kids with disabilities and life-threatening illnesses, based in Moses Lake.
Maegan’s father, Matt Weiler, came along for the trip on the Quinault Indian Reservation and was grateful to YOU for the opportunity
A guide helped Weiler take the shot by being her eyes with the use of a rifle set on a tripod and a video camera run through the scope. It worked out pretty well for her, as she hit the bear from 85 yards away.
“It was kind of like a video game and they told me right or left, but I got to aim and everything,” Maegan Weiler said. “It was awesome.”
This wasn’t even Weiler’s first hunting trip, as she’s hunted and received help from her family in the past.
“We’ve always hunted as a family, but how we’ve done it in the past for deer hunting is her grandfather or I held the rifle and she pulled the trigger, but this she did it holding it herself,” Matt Weiler said. “It really helped her boost her confidence and show her she can do stuff by herself.”
Boosting confidence and showing disabled kids they can be independent is exactly why Cindy Carpenter and her husband started YOU.
“We try to specialize in adapting situations to accommodate kids with different medical conditions and mostly what we’ve seen with kids with disabilities is that they are able to continue to hunt with what they learn from us,” she said.
Carpenter says the success of YOU trips aren’t measured in whether or not an animal is bagged.
“We just want to give them the highest percentage chance of harvesting an animal. But the success of a trip isn’t harvest, it’s a bonus,” Carpenter said.
Weiler agreed. “I’m glad I got the bear and everything but even if I hadn’t it would be been an awesome trip,” she said. “Now I want to help as many disabled kids as I can to get out too.”
