By Ed Simmons, Jr.
cpreporter@lcs.net
Supervisor Bobby Popowicz traveled to the Mattaponi Hunt Club on Guinea Road Friday night to personally deliver a Board of Supervisors resolution honoring the club's hosting of the 2nd Annual Wounded Warrior Hunt, Nov. 23.
"I just want to thank you for looking out for our Wounded Warriors," Popowicz told club president Donald Normand and the members, shaking his hand and reading the resolution. Then the supervisor gave him the shiny brass plaque printed with the resolution.
It states that wounded service men and women "seldom receive the recognition or appreciation they so richly deserve." But the citizens of Caroline owe the Mattaponi Hunt Club "a debt of gratitude for their efforts on behalf of our wounded warriors" providing a "fun-filled day of hunting and fellowship" and "a home-cooked meal at the Upper Caroline Volunteer Fire Department."
Twenty-three wounded warriors from Bethesda, Walter Reed and Fort Meade participated at the November hunt.
Attending too, Upper Caroline Volunteer Fire Chief Steve Parrish told the huntsmen he felt honored to be associated with them for all the work they did to take care of the wounded warriors and take them hunting. The huntsmen hold their Wounded Warrior Dinner at the Upper Caroline firehouse.
Club president Donald Normand said that member Brian Green deserved the most credit for organizing the event. Junior Rose and Don Blosser served as guides, he also said.
Normand noted that one of the Mattaponi Hunt Club's founding members was himself a wounded warrior. This was Edward Hamilton Beazley, a soldier, who won the Bronze Star and a Purple Heart in the Battle of Saipan in World War II. Beazley lost an eye in the fight.
Normand said the Wounded Warriors Hunt has become a community event drawing widespread support from individuals and businesses.
"It's really a good cause, and everybody falls in on it," he said.