Like so many others folks with interest the great outdoors, hunting and people, I am a Hunter Education Instructor. At times I wonder why I even bother.

On the eleven o'clock news one evening at the start of gun season there was a report of a missing 8 year old hunter. A search was in full swing. I prayed for that kid. The next evening they said the kid had been found. What a relief. He had built himself a lean-to shelter and made an S.O.S. sign on the creek bank. Most importantly "he stayed put".

A box came in the mail just before Christmas and naturaly it went under the tree. No mention of who it was from. My son seemed to be getting everyones attention then handed me the package. I opened it and found a bag of Buckwheat flower, Stone Ground Wheat, a new hunting knife with sharpening stone and a whistle. I couldn't figure it out. "Look in the box." In the bottom was a large envelope.

In the envelope was a large picture of two deputy sheriffs standing on each side of a kid in front of a pile of sticks. Simply written on the picture was, "This is my eight year old son. Thank you."

I went outside and cried like a baby. Finally I knew that after all these years I had been doing something that counts.