Desiree DeCoste
Beaver Staff
Napanee and District Rod and Gun Club (NDRGC) member Ron Rowe was blissfully unaware he’d been named the Ontario Trapshooting Association’s 2019 Mike Fulop award winner.
Since 1999 the OPTA has granted the Mike Fulop award to a member who makes trapshooting much more enjoyable for the participants and clearly demonstrates tremendous encouragement and support for this sport in our province.
“A friend had said to me that I had won an award and to look in the OPTA booklet,” Rowe told the Beaver. “It feels pretty wonderful, I wasn’t aware of it at all.”
Rowe is the property manager at the NDRGC as well as the trap representative, meaning he deals with all things related to trapshooting. On Sunday mornings he runs the traps as he’s the amateur trap association representative as well as the president of the Quinte Trap League.
The club hosts a fundraising dinner every spring with the money going to different organizations in the community. This year $10,000 was raised and donated.
The club has become committed to the ongoing development of a local fish hatchery that runs 10 months out of the year at Springside Park. They raise both rainbow and brown trout eggs and have also hatched walleye. Over the past few years the club has raised well over a million fry and is not slowing down.
“I love shooting trap as it’s a passion, past time and hobby of mine,” Rowe expressed. “I spend around 60 per cent of my time involved in the sport one way or another and I now have my son and daughter involved in the club as well.”
The NDRGC is a private club and their ranges are usually not open to the general public unless a special event is scheduled at the club.
For more information on the NDRGC and an event list visit www.ndrgc.ca/index or call the club at 613-354-6598.