|
|
| |
|
|
| |
SPORTS-OUTDOOR
“9-24-2007 BEAR IT”
ELLIS OUTDOOR
Mike
Foss, to anyone who has had the chance to walk the big forest
with him near Washburn on Lake Superior, looks a little like
the bears he chases. Foss spends much of his time in bait
pits. He’s big and dark and burly…and tough. Until
he starts to talk about kids like Megan Engblom, a feisty,
fun 16 year old from Mora, Minnesota in remission from leukemia,
or Michael Ederer of Kaukauna, Wisconsin who celebrated his
18th birthday in bear camp still weak from the chemotherapy
treatments fighting Ewing Sarcoma. |
 |
Ask
Foss about these kids who he donated bear hunts to and any expectations
for a bite or a growl turn to something softer with the first
word. The big bear transforms into Teddy Bear. Well, certainly
into Care Bear. He pauses during an interview to compose himself
with the words, “The kids….wait...I might cry.”
Then he leaves the table and for a few seconds, does just that.
“I’m helping these kids because it feels good,”
he continues. “They may never have the opportunity to
do it again. If someone wants to donate their tag to kids like
these, we will donate the guiding and our time. It does take
money though. It would be nice if businesses or people would
want to sponsor these hunts for sick kids.”
There exists in Wisconsin a special regulation that allows the
successful bear harvest applicant to transfer the license to
a youth hunter. Although there are so many applicants for the
bear hunts that a harvest tag comes around only once every six
or seven seasons, many hunters do just that. When the kid who
would like to hunt is facing a potentially life-threatening
illness, the youth transfer under Act 59 comes easy.
Jeff Schumacher knows the feeling. Schumacher and Michael Ederer’s
father Terry work closely together as electricians at Thilmanys
LLC Paper Mill in Kaukauna. Schumacher had drawn a harvest tag
for the 2007 hunt, but he was also keenly aware of the stressful
journey an entire family takes when a son or daughter is fighting
a disease like Ewing Sarcoma.
|
“I
saw what Terry (wife Chris) and his family were going through,”
Schumacher said. “I was grateful my family never had to
go through that. I knew Michael liked to hunt and I was aware
of the youth transfer program. I knew if Michael was healthy
enough to go that I was going to donate the tag to him. I hope
he has a long and happy life of hunting.”
Terry said that Schumacher’s reaction reflected how other
people too respond to the family. Even the doctor at the clinic
who was scheduled to treat Michael on a day that conflicted
with the bear hunt, adjusted to ensure Michael could participate.
“Michael was supposed to go to the clinic tomorrow,”
Terry said in bear camp. “The Doctor said `you’ve
got to go bear hunting’ and postponed the treatment until
Monday. Jeff donating his hunt was awesome. It’s hard
to put into words.”
Michael Ederer sat at camp breakfast with the other hunters,
a certain tension growing in the hours before the first vigils
on bear stands scattered over miles of Lake Superior country.
Although still a bit weak from therapy, he looked forward to
the possibility of tagging a bear with his 30-06. He was also
relaxed in his discussion of his own journey facing cancer.
“I had a pain in my side, real bad one night about one
year ago,” said Michael Ederer, who participated in football
and track at Kaukauna. “The doctor said it was sport’s
injury. It went away but then came on real hard. I came back
to the doctor and he said it was a pulled muscle. The pain was
constant and I knew it wasn’t normal. We went to the right
doctor, he took an x-ray and he said he never saw something
like that before. We went to Appleton; they took a biopsy and
sent it to the Mayo Clinic.”
“I was diagnosed with cancer in January and have to have
chemo therapy on and off every three weeks. I had surgery to
remove three, seven-inch pieces of rib that they replaced with
gortex. It feels the best it’s felt in a long time.”
This reporter had the privilege of sitting on stand with Megan
Engblom and her family. A large, enclosed box stand also comfortably
seated parents Dave and Tina Engblom, sister Sheila, 18, and
Uncle Greg Lukecart.
|
Megan’s
harvest tag was donated by Harold Frank of Oshkosh through Kippenberg
Creek Kids, a non-profit organization led by Larry and Lorri
Beyer that provides outdoor adventures at no cost for children
and their families with life-threatening illnesses. Outdoor
Allure of Washburn donated the living accommodations for the
Engblom family while they hunted bear. Weeks before the bear
hunt, Megan concluded her treatment for Leukemia diagnosed three
years before at age 13.
“She was never sick before but she came out of the barn
just shivering,” her Mother Tina said. “I called
school and they said a lot of kids were out with the flu. She
started having hallucinations that night. I said this is no
flu. A tiny fester on the end of her finger at the hospital
hours later was going up her arm. The infection was so bad and
white blood count so high that they said she maybe would have
had two days to live without treatment. You hear of this, but
you never think it will happen to your family.”
|
 |
Megan
held vigil out the window of the stand for six hours while family
members waited with video equipment at the ready. In camp, she
and sister Sheila had shadow boxed and threw verbal jabs at
each other, the assaults not for one second able to disguise
an extraordinarily close sisterly and family bond. Meagan too
walked barefoot in the camp creek, finding a bit of irony in
the entire idea of being in the northern forest at all.
“First I couldn’t go in the woods at all because
breathing the outside air might lead to infection,” she
said with the same attitude that probably scared the leukemia
away. “Now here I am bear hunting.”
13 of 17 hunters in the Mike Foss camp had filled tags by September
22. Michael Ederer, after seeing 13 bears but holding out for
a larger animal, was returning to camp with his parents September
24. Megan scored on day two. The .270 round dropped the 165
pound boar in its tracks.
“I knew I would take the first legal bear that came in,”
she said. “This isn’t a contest.”
No this is life. And if it’s measured in courage, Megan
and Michael are standing in the winner’s circle.
Contact Licensed Bear and Deer Guide Mike Foss and Northern
Wisconsin Outfitters at 1-715-373-0344 or NorthWIout@worldnet.att.net
or www.northernwisconsinoutfitters.com.
Contact Kippenberg Creek Kids at 1-715-873-4523 or llbeyer@yahoo.com
or www.kippenbergcreekkids.com. |
|
"Affordable
Web Design to fit any Budget" by Rising Son Web Design
|
|
