This is a speech prepared and presented at the  Mother Lode Gun Club in Jamestown as a report on Camp Perry by Lauren White a 16 year old high school student.

My name is Lauren White, and I’m a member of the California Grizzlies Junior High Power Rifle Team. These are my teammates (they were introduced).

I met these guys when we started shooting a few years ago in the junior .22 program with our coach, Steve Finigian. I came in as a 4-H member, and learned about proper gun handling and safety, and how to shoot various positions. Little did I know when I joined I would later compete at Nationals. After going through the program a couple years and helping out with it, we started shooting high power last fall with Robert and Ed Taylor and Steve as our coaches. We started out shooting twice a month at both the Mother Lode and Keystone high power matches, and from that to training once a week with our coaches. We did everything from dry firing on the indoor range with the heat cranked up, to shooting outside in the pouring rain with no rain gear. Once they actually dedicated a full practice to working on just moving our gear on and off the line quickly, (over and over again) and being able to carry it a few hundred yards with no problem. We participated in the High Power Rifle Clinic here at mother lode and soon went from practicing once a week, to working with the Rikka computer trainer in Steve’s garage twice a week, right up to about two days before we left. We worked our butts off to get ready for Perry, there were times when I really didn’t want to go to practice. I thought Robert was crazy for cranking up the heat in here when it was 90 degrees outside, but he kept telling us, “you don’t know what heat is”. I was afraid by the end of Perry that I would get sick of shooting… not the case! We shot every day for 2 weeks straight and loved every minute of it, I could not wait to walk back out on the firing line the next day and see how much better I could do! I am so glad we practiced as much as we did, because by the time we got back to Camp Perry, we were ready, we felt prepared and confident in our abilities to go represent California well.

Now I’d like to introduce the rest of the California Grizzlies:

David Katosic- is our team captain, he took 4^th sharpshooter in one match
David Garcia- he took 2^nd sharpshooter overall in the match rifle championships

Chad Kurgan- took 1^st marksman in 3 of the matches

Brad Easley- took 4^th marksman honor
Lee Bahten- took 1^st marksman honor

Samantha and Ty Cooper are veteran Grizzlies-
Ty took High Junior overall in 3 matches
Sam took a 3^rd master honor, and they placed 4^th in the 2-man team competitions.
In the 4-man team competition, our team (who included David Katosic, David Garcia, Chad Kurgan and myself) took 1^st sharpshooter.

We were the only team out of the entire United States to shoot at the national level with bolt action rifles. Let me tell you, we were celebrities back there! At first it was kind of neat, all the attention we got, but after explaining the situation in our politically correct state over and over to people, it got to be a little bit of a pain. I think my teammates would also agree the people who were back there were awesome! Everyone was so friendly and helpful, the military were everywhere ready to help us and answer our questions, people were always interested in how we were doing and really wanted to see us do well. I would run into someone again maybe a week after I had met them and they still remembered my name and wanted to know how I was shooting! It was a neat experience to meet people with the same passion that we have for the sport, and to get treated with such kindness and respect… you don’t find that at school. A couple of us (myself included) got the opportunity to meet the executive vice president of the NRA, Wayne LaPierre. I was very surprised to learn it was his first day in the pits and he didn’t know how to pull targets, but we were happy to show him the ropes.
Our team stayed in WWII POW huts on base, which are no bigger than a 1-car garage… some people I met thought we were crazy, because they’re pretty run-down and the beds are like sleeping in hammocks; but I thought it was fun, it’s part of the experience of Camp Perry. We got to watch the sun rise over 100+ targets every morning. Depending on what range you were on, you could look down the line and not be able to see the other end- there were targets and people as far as you can see. I know the guys won’t forget the cannon in the morning before colors, because every time at least one of them had their scope set up so they could see it go off. One thing I won’t forget is the sound of over 100 people shooting rapid fire at the same time, it sounds like some pretty insane popcorn! We were fortunate enough to compete at Camp Perry for its Centennial year, and as part of the celebration we got to watch Army paratroopers come in, every one of them right on target.
These guys are like family to me now, we all became very close back there. We went through all these experiences together. We were there for each other when someone needed help or support, we battled monstrous mosquitoes (some of us ate them), and egged each other on to shoot better. We competed in the team matches together, but at the same time we had little competitions going on amongst ourselves. We all shot some personal bests and found it to be a very positive experience.
Competing at Camp Perry was like nothing we have ever experienced, there will be many years to come and we’ll go back, but there is only one first year, and it was truly unforgettable. It was an amazing opportunity to be able to go and compete at the national level.