Crush’n Clays Charity Wrap-up

by Pamela Meara

This year the Arlington-Fairfax Chapter, Inc., IWLA (ARL-FX) cohosted the Crush’n Clays charity event in support of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital with the Virginia Shooting Sports Association (VSSA).  We had a good turnout of about 90 shooters who participated in the 22nd annual charity event June 12^th at the Chapter shotgun range. Over the past 22 years this event has raised over $350,000 in support of St. Jude. Crush'n Clays is not only the longest running shooting charity supporting St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, but also it is the longest consecutive running shooting charity event in the country. Participants were provided with ammunition, event t-shirts, and lunch with their paid registration in the event. Lunch this year lunch was catered by Tony’s New York Pizza in Manassas, Virginia, and was a huge success. 

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital was founded by entertainer Danny Thomas to treat children with cancer and other catastrophic illnesses because he believed no child should die in the dawn of life. Since St. Jude was established, the survival rate for the most common type of childhood cancer, leukemia, has increased from 4 percent in 1962 to 94 percent today. During this time, the overall survival rate for childhood cancers has risen from 20 percent to 80 percent. Unlike other hospitals, the majority of funding for St. Jude comes from generous donors.

The trap shooting event consisted of 25 targets from the 16-yard line and 25 targets from the 23-yard line. Both individuals and four-person teams competed in the event. In the team competition the best three scores on each squad counted for the team score. All participants competed for High Overall. The festivities began with a shotgun clinic for novice competitors. Suburban Electric team won the “High Team” award, and Tom Muddiman won the shoot off over Tim Tynan for the win for “High Over All.”

 As always, the Annie Oakley event drew a huge number of participants. Many participants entered the event multiple times resulting in well over 100 entries during the day. The Annie Oakley event also had tremendous spectator appeal, pitting the skills of one shooter against another. Half of the entry fees for the event is awarded to the eventual winner of each squad and the other half goes to St. Jude.

Again, this year we welcomed many sponsors, including a couple of new ones, without whose continuing and generous support this event would not be as successful as it is today. This year’s sponsors were Suburban Electric, Whiting-Turner Contracting Company, D & F Construction, Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative. Mid-Atlantic Bowhunters, and the National Rifle Association.

The hosts of this year’s event, Bob Brino, Pamela Meara, Joe Turner, Lu Charette, and Andrea Smith would like to give a special thank you to all our hosts and sponsors along with all the volunteers whose tireless efforts made the event a great success. Being the event was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic, we are grateful we were able to have the event this year.