A Volunteer Success Story

[Tim Nunan]

Tennessee's Betty Loveless Honored with National Award

NEWTOWN, Conn. In just six years, Tennessee's Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) has grown to include more than 1,500 young trap shooters, the most of any state in the country. And much of that success can be attributed to one woman's efforts.

Betty Loveless of Murfreesboro, Tenn., has been awarded the National Shooting Sports Foundation's (NSSF) prestigious Dave Kaiser Award. The national award recognizes a volunteer for their outstanding contributions to NSSF's Scholastic Clay Target Program.

Loveless, a former volunteer SCTP state director, helped institute the program in Tennessee in 2001. In her five years as state director, Loveless guided the program from its infancy to its current success, gaining the support of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) and Tennessee Wildlife Federation (TWF).

"Not only was Betty Loveless instrumental in getting Tennessee's Scholastic Clay Target Program off the ground, but, because of her efforts, Tennessee's program has become a model for other states to follow," said Zach Snow of NSSF, national coordinator of SCTP. "Tennessee has the most SCTP participants in the nation, and that can be greatly attributed to the tireless commitment of Betty Loveless."

Loveless and her husband, Alan, are former owners of Big Springs Clay Target Sports, where SCTP got its start in the state. The couple owns a photography business in Murfreesboro.

The Dave Kaiser Award, named after the award's first recipient, is given annually to a SCTP volunteer who has gone above and beyond in support of the youth development program. Kaiser, a past president of the Amateur Trapshooting Association (ATA), was instrumental in having SCTP adopted by ATA – the governing body for the sport of trapshooting.

SCTP was developed by NSSF to offer young men and women in grades 12 and under an opportunity to compete as a team in trap, skeet and sporting clays. In Tennessee, the program is a cooperative effort between TWRA, TWF and NSSF. The program is designed to instill in participants safe firearms handling, commitment, responsibility, leadership and teamwork.

The popularity of SCTP in Tennessee and around the nation has skyrocketed. In just six years, the program has grown to include more than 8,300 youths in 41 states. On Aug. 8 and 9, a record 1,600 SCTP trap shooters competed at the SCTP National Trapshooting Championships held at the Grand American World Trapshooting Championships in Sparta, Ill. SCTP has also experienced remarkable growth in female participation. This year, more than 1,000 female youths participated, a 50 percent increase from 2005 and a 178 percent leap from 2004.

For more information, visit www.nssf.org/sctp or www.tnwf.org/sctp.