Hunter Safety Education Instructor/Organization of the Year

Link Grass

What do you believe in?

What do you believe is so valuable to pass along to the next generation, that you are willing to give up your time, your money, and your energy to do all that you can… to teach as many as you can… about the values that you believe can shape another person’s life.

Link Grass believes in the power of the outdoors to connect a young person to a world wider than the World Wide Web, deeper than any hip-hop lyrics, and more meaningful than anything that has ever or will ever be found in the pages of People magazine. In 2007 Link taught or assisted with more than 30 hunter education classes. He taught more than 530 students, spent 320 hours in classrooms, and drove more than 2,480 miles to do it. He taught classes in Lincoln, Gaston, Catawba, Iredell, Cleveland, Mecklenburg, Cabarrus, and Beaufort counties. He paid his own way. He sacrificed time with his family and friends so that other families, and friends he hadn’t yet made, could learn to believe in the power of the outdoors.

Link’s daughter, Dana Wiggins, wrote up a 1 ½ page nomination form that read like a love letter to her father. She spoke of the attributes her dad has passed along to his children, his grandchildren, and tens of thousands of kids across North Carolina. She wrote of Knowledge. Guidance. Assurance. Fulfillment.

Do you believe that wildlife, and wild places are linked to those kinds of character traits? Link Grass does, and I believe I’d like for you to meet him, the 2007 Hunter Safety Education Instructor of the Year.