Arkansas Outdoor Hall of Fame inductees for 2023 announced by Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation – SWARK Today

PRESS RELEASE

LITTLE ROCK, Ark., (Could 3, 2023) – The Arkansas Recreation and Fish Basis (AGFF) immediately introduced its 2023 Arkansas Out of doors Corridor of Fame inductees and the recipients of its Legacy Award and the Steve Smith Spirit of Giving Award. Honorees can be formally acknowledged through the Arkansas Out of doors Corridor of Fame Banquet, slated for Saturday, August 26, 2023, on the Statehouse Conference Middle in Little Rock.

“For greater than 100 years, the Arkansas Recreation and Fish Fee has labored to preserve the state’s wildlife sources, because of the selfless contributions of individuals corresponding to our 2023 slate of inductees and award winners,” mentioned Deke Whitbeck, president of the Arkansas Recreation and Fish Basis. “We’re delighted to have the ability to have fun these success tales and the excellent people behind them.”

ARKANSAS OUTDOOR HALL OF FAME

Jim Ronquest – Stuttgart, AR, 

A lifelong outdoorsman and well-known entrepreneur, Ronquest has helped develop two of the mid-South’s Arkansas’s most iconic out of doors manufacturers. Following a protracted and distinguished profession with Wealthy-N-Tone duck calls of Stuttgart, he’s now vice chairman, improvement with Mississippi-based Drake Waterfowl, a producer of technical looking and fishing attire. Ronquest additionally received the World’s Championship Duck Calling Contest in 2006.

Tom Foti – Little Rock, AR

For years the state’s foremost ecologist, Tom Foti is extensively credited with bringing science to the pure space preservation motion in Arkansas. His profession with the Arkansas Pure Heritage Fee resulted within the creation of a number of vital pure areas within the state, significantly within the West Gulf Coastal Plain of southwestern Arkansas and served as a mannequin for related efforts nationwide.

Bob Barringer, Little Rock, AR & Ronnie Ritter, Scorching Springs, AR 

Recognizing the issue of starvation within the state, Barringer based Arkansas Hunters Feeding the Hungry in 2000 to assist join a portion of harvested deer with these in want. Shortly thereafter, Ritter signed on to steer the mission-driven group. At the moment, Arkansas Hunters Feeding the Hungry has processed and distributed tens of hundreds of kilos of meat to needy households.

LEGACY AWARD

Larry & Brenda Potterfield – Columbia, MO

Each nation youngsters from Missouri, Larry and Brenda Potterfield turned their ardour for capturing sports activities right into a profession by opening a small gun store in 1977 that might finally turn out to be MidwayUSA (midwayusa.com). Constructed on household values like honesty, integrity and respect for others, they try to take care of this tradition with every worker added to their rising workforce. They take an identical strategy of their philanthropic efforts by the MidwayUSA Basis, established in 2007 to offer sustainable funding to youth capturing sports activities groups throughout the nation.

STEVE SMITH SPIRIT OF GIVING AWARD

The Morrell Household – Alma, AR

The household behind the extremely profitable Morrell® Targets, the Morrell title has come to imply high quality, innovation and above all, community-mindedness and dedication to the game of archery. Acknowledged because the gold customary of targets within the U.S., the Morrell Company is relentlessly centered on investing in future generations of archers by the Nationwide Archery within the Faculties Program and Archers USA’s Varsity Archery.  As well as, Dale Morrell created Archers USA, which is taking root throughout America.

Tickets for the 2023 Arkansas Out of doors Corridor of Fame Banquet are $150 with tables of 10 out there for $1,500 every. Arkansas Recreation and Fish Basis Board Member TJ Lawhon and his spouse, Mandy, will co-chair the occasion. The evening will embrace dinner, raffles, a silent public sale and the induction ceremony. Doorways open at 6 p.m. for reception and silent public sale; dinner will start at 7 p.m.

Proceeds from the occasion assist the year-round work of the Basis, a 501c3 non-profit group that serves because the fundraising adjunct to the Arkansas Recreation and Fish Fee, serving to introduce tons of to the enjoyment of the outside yearly. Established in 1982, AGFF’s mission helps AGFC initiatives, significantly these partaking youngsters and youth within the outside and out of doors actions. 
To buy tickets to the occasion, go to the Basis web site (agff.org) or by merely texting “FISH” to 243–725. For extra data, contact the Arkansas Recreation and Fish Basis workplace at (501) 223-6468 or electronic mail [email protected]