Montana Wounded Warriors started off 2022 with a shoulder season hunt for elk in January and ended with a buffalo harvest in December. The fall season was filled with an array of hunting for antelope, mule deer, whitetail deer and bull elk. In addition, one of our vets received a donated sheep tag through FWP’s Purple Heart Veteran Donation Program.

A huge thank you to everyone who gave our Montana Wounded Warriors a chance to hunt this year including the Wilks’ NBar Ranch in Grass Range, the Ahlgren’s in Grass Range, the Anderson’s EY Ranch in Eden, the Watkin’s Trophies Plus Outfitters in Alzada, the Peterson’s AG Ranch in Big Sandy, the Hoyt Cattle Company in Silver Star, Jeff Bilharz of the Lee Ranch in Colstrip, the Keating Ranch in Lavina and the CB Ranch in Darby.

The Crawford Classic softball tournament was held at Kalispell Parks and Rec’s Conrad Complex on Woodland Park Dr. on the weekend of June 18th and 19th. To honor and memorialize Bobby Crawford, the Crawford Classic Memorial, a charitable softball tournament, started in 2019. Bobby passed away in a work-related accident while in North Dakota.  Each year the tournament proceeds are donated to a not for profit in his name, as a way to remember and honor him. Bobby was an avid softball player and outdoors man.

I was contacted last November by the tournament organizers who wanted to let us know that Montana Wounded Warriors would be the beneficiaries of the funds raised at this year’s tournament. They told me our organization exemplifies who Bobby was and this continued his support for our nation’s military and their veterans. After talking to Neiman Wilson, one of the organizers of the event, I was hopeful that this would help Montana Wounded Warriors continue to fund our mission of taking disabled Montana Veterans who served in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan on all expense paid hunting and fishing trips. I can tell you I was extremely impressed with how successful their first fundraiser on our behalf turned out.

Their crew, Alli Cox, Carolyn and Mike McLean, Katy Park, and Neiman Wilson, inspired by their love of softball, have made the tournament bigger and better each year.  With awesome work and dedication to support our disabled Montana Veterans they helped raise $10,000 for Montana Wounded Warriors. The Board of MTWW  would like to thank everyone who supported the tournament in any way for all the hard work and generosity and the organizers of the Crawford Classic would love to see you all there again next year!

Neil Baumann, Vice President, MT Wounded Warriors