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Painesville, Ohio, Local 673 member Dave Thomas is newly equipped with a Benelli Nova pump shotgun and ready to head into the field for turkey and rabbits. Thomas was the first union member to win a gun through the USA’s pro-staff program. As part of the program, USA pro-staff members attend local union meetings in their region, spreading the word about the USA, while holding gun raffles to help raise funds for the new hunting and fishing club.

“I never win anything,” Thomas said. “I can’t imagine how much money I’ve spent on gun raffles over the years.” His favorite outdoor pursuits include hunting deer and small game as well as fishing for bass and walleye. As an avid sportsman, Thomas joined the USA early on and encourages his local members to join. “It’s an exclusive club for union members who love the outdoors. Joining was a no-brainer,” he said. Learn more at www.UnionSportsmen.org or call 877-USA-2211 (toll-free).

Albuquerque, N.M., Local 611 member Paul Kress of Local learned he will now be watching his favorite football team, the Buffalo Bills, on a high definition 42-inch plasma TV. Despite his buddy’s warning that “they never give that stuff away … they just want to contact you,” Kress entered to win the TV at an IBEW Membership Development Conference in Atlanta last October. The TV was donated by the USA and VERSUS Network (formerly OLN), which airs the TRCP’s union-sponsored television programs Life in the Open and Escape to the Wild.

“I’m trying to get my son into hunting, so I keep the hunting programs on,” said Kress. Kress himself enjoys hunting big game, particularly whitetail, in New Mexico, Minnesota and his home state of New York.

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A Lucky Season for Two IBEW Sportsmen

Dave Thomas and Paul Kress both have a little more holiday cheer this season, thanks to the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance, a hunting and fishing program of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.