School-aged children are invited to participate in a day of hunting education and activities presented by Zanesville Ducks Unlimited Saturday afternoon. 

From 12 p.m. until 3 p.m, kids ages 5 through 17 can test their skills or begin to develop them for the first time at Briar Rabbit Shooting Sports located at 2949 Granger Hill Rd. in Zanesville. Registration begins at 11 a.m.

Program participants will be taught gun safety before being given the chance to shoot shotguns and pistols at their pleasure. 

Kids can also try their hand at archery with the help of the Tri-Valley archery team. 

“It’s been a great event for all the kids. It brings the families out together. Mom and dad or grandma and grandpa, they bring the kids out, they can actually walk around with them, watch them shoot, take pictures of them shooting, just really let the kids get into the hunting type of thing,” said Jared Reynolds of Zanesville Ducks Unlimited.

According to Reynolds, the event is one of the largest Green Wing events in the state.

The program encourages youth to go outdoors and take up a new hobby that fewer and fewer children participate in each year.

“There’s a lot of decline in hunting these days with kids, and not too many kids are really active in it or teenagers are active in it, we’re actually seeing a decline nationwide, so this is one of the things where parents can actually get ‘em out and actually get them enthused about the outdoors,” said Reynolds.

The cost to participate in the event is $20 and includes lunch and the chance to win prizes.

Zanesville Ducks Unlimited raises funds throughout the year for conservation projects. 

“I think about 83 percent of all money raised for Ducks Unlimited actually goes to projects, whether it’s wetland projects or some form of project to help with wildlife, either biology part of it, learning about the waterfowl species themselves, or creating habitats, or even like a watershed type of project,” said Reynolds.