Columnist Paula DelGiudice: Safari Club spreads good cheer in LV

Paula DelGiudice

Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2001 | 11:02 a.m.

Paula DelGiudice's outdoors notebook appears Wednesday. Reach her at desertdenizens@aol.com.

Safari Club International stormed into Las Vegas last week for a four-day stand to enthuse their members, share camaraderie, help feed the hungry, share the gift of touch to help local children "see" wildlife and shoot a few targets -- all in the name of conservation, outdoor education and humanitarian service.

More than 100 outdoor sports enthusiasts from 20 states and three foreign countries, including U.S. Sen. Mike Thompson (Calif.), U.S. Reps. Jim Gibbons (Nev.) and Don Young (Ark.) and Olympic gold medal wrestler Rulon Gardner (Wyo.) participated in a Celebrity Sporting Clay Shoot at Nellis Air Force Base last Tuesday.

While the shooters were shooting, the executive director of SFI, Dr. Rudy Rosen, opened the permanent Sensory Safari exhibit at the Las Vegas Natural History Museum. The new hands-on learning experience was created with wildlife taxidermy contributed by the Desert Chapter of Safari Club in Las Vegas and by the SFI Foundation, a nonprofit agency dedicated to wildlife conservation, outdoor education and humanitarian service.

Dr. Rosen was accompanied by 200 local children with multiple disabilities and their teachers or aides. The children were guided to a variety of stations where they were able to "see" wildlife through touch and learn about the animals from expert Safari Club volunteers.

The next day, SCI held its Sportsmen Against Hunger event to officially open the convention.

SCI/SCIF president Mike Rogers announced development of the first institutional cookbook for wild game that the Safari Club International Foundation will distribute to assist soup kitchen cooks around the globe. Nine thousand pounds of salmon and venison were presented to the Salvation Army to help feed the hungry people of Las Vegas.

World-renowned chef John Schumacher, who specializes in cooking wild game, led a hands-on training session involving local area soup kitchen cooks.

SCI's Sportsmen Against Hunger program has delivered more than 29 million meals to help people in need. To assist in the preparation of those meals, SCI is creating the first institutional cookbook for wild game so cooks at relief organizations can make greater use of nature's bounty to feed the hungry.

Lt. Col. Jim Sullivan of the Salvation Army said, "If a person has a skill and shares it with someone who doesn't, then the person who does not have that skill is made better for it."

Institutional recipes will be available on the Safari Club's website at www.SafariClubFoundation.org.