Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program

Be it fishing, hunting, bird watching, what we need is children to be away from the TV’s and outdoors.

That’s the goal of Operation Orphans. The group–founded by Game Warden Gene Ashby in 1960–mentors children by taking them hunting. Tom Hewitt, is the organization’s director.

We bring in children from homes all over the state. All of these are disadvantaged children. And all of these children are able to spend a day with a mentor, having a day of fellowship. The harvesting of the animal is just land-yap and it is something special.

Volunteers with this unique organization have worked with over sixteen thousand children. Hewitt says the child, not the hunt, remains top priority.

The main focus of our program is number one, safety. Teaching the children the love of the outdoors, introducing them because so many of these children are city children. They have never been in the outdoors. So our day, again, is mentoring of the children, teaching them about the outdoors and having a day of fun.

Operation Orphans have harvested nearly sixteen thousand animals. They donate every animal they harvest to the home where the child came from.

It’s a win – win situation.

Find out more about Operation Orphans at passporttotexas.org.

Our series receives support from the SFWR program, working to increase fishing, hunting, shooting and boating opportunities in Texas. We had research and writing help from Kate Lipinski… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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Cut and paste the following link into your browser for more information on Operation Orphans: http://www.operationorphans.org/

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