I had the opportunity to join a fraternal group at a 50th Anniversary Banquet this past week at the Butler City Hunting & Fishing Club in East Butler. The dinner was sponsored by the Northern Butler County H-T-E Club which is comprised of H-T-E educators who provide the classes for new hunters. Every person who hunts or traps in our commonwealth must have the H-T-E class and card. I learned this group was formed 50 years ago in the town of West Sunbury and was one of the first groups to be formed in Pennsylvania for this purpose.

One of the honored guests at the banquet was a retired PGC WCO, Ned Weston. I’ve known Ned for years, but I didn’t know he was the one that spearheaded this group back in the 60s.

I was even more surprised to learn that my longtime friend Ken Bryan was part of the first group, as well. Ken is retired as the Post Master of West Sunbury Post Office. Who knew that Ken was the mild-mannered postal clerk by day and the super H-T-E instructor on weekends!

An interesting fact was that in the 60s there was no specific curriculum and the fellows put their thoughts down on paper to cover what the course should include. Ned then took the notes to Slippery Rock State College — as it was known back then — and had education professors write out a course outline for Butler County students to follow. Thousands of students have benefited by these men’s vision and it truly was a consortium of talent to bring it all together.

This year the Hunter-Trapper education program reaches out to youth and first time hunters in a new way. There will be two parts for the Hunter–Trapper course; one portion will be an online-independent study or classroom portion and the other will be a hands-on traditional class that students must attend.

It will likely be confusing for some as this is a change from the way the class was traditionally taught. Check with the PGC website and register online for the independent study and pre-register for a spot in the many classes being offered in the different locations.

The first class being offered in the area as of this column will be at the Lancaster Township Community Center. The community center is located 4 miles north of Zelienople on Route 19. The class runs April 24-25 from 6 to 9:30 p.m. This is a new location and as of last information received they had openings available. More classes will be offered in June through November this year. Don’t get caught by the class changes and have your new hunter scrambling to get the proper skills and coursework completed. All participants must be at least 11 years old on the last day of class; complete Chapters 1, 4, 5 and 9 of student manual before class, and attend all scheduled days at one of the H-T-E locations. Pre-registration is strongly recommended for all courses.

I remember back in the day when I was in the Boy Scouts our troop decided to take one of the first H-T-E classes offered in the PGC Southwest Headquarters in Ligonier. As a youngster I was awed by the stone building and all of its animal mounts, as well as the instructors dressed in uniforms. It left quite an impression on us 11- and 12-year-olds and we were mighty proud to be one of the first groups in our area to hold our H-T-E hunter safety cards.

Seeing WCO’s in their green-dress uniforms with the old-style leather holsters with the strap over the chest and shoulder was just awesome to us. Later on one of my classmates would join the ranks of the PGC and I always wondered if that experience may have led him to his career choice so many years later. Until we meet again be safe and remember that Spring Gobbler season is around the corner!

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle.