Crofts Honored For Teaching Hunter Safety | News, Sports, Jobs

photo by: Photo by Joselyn King

Retired Ohio County Sheriff’s Deputy Harry Croft, left, and his wife Florence hold the plague denoting them as inductees into the West Virginia Hunter Education Hall of Fame.

WHEELING — Retired Ohio County Sheriff’s Deputy Harry Croft recalls a time when a friend of his was shot from a tree stand and injured while hunting. He knows of other incidents where a man waved at another hunter from a tree stand, and the second man thought he was a squirrel and fired a shot.

Then there was a time when two hunters were walking through a field, and a third hunter in the distance mistook them for turkeys and shot their way.

“As a fellow hunter, those are the kind of things that make you mad,” Croft said.

Croft and his wife Florence recently were inducted into the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources Hunter Education Hall of Fame after 32 years of teaching hunter education in the Ohio Valley.

Assisting them along the way have been their sons Matthew and Nelson — also a retired Ohio County deputy who is now serving as manager of the County Animal Shelter.

“We get no compensation. We’re just volunteers,” Harry Croft said. “We teach a lot and do a lot of things for the community, and apparently that is why they gave it to us. We had a lot of years in.”

Croft said in addition to hunter safety he also taught law enforcement classes for 25 years, as well as archery safety classes.

“You get no financial (compensation) from teaching a class,” he continued. “If there is postage, we pay it. Cabela’s lets us have the room, and the rest is up to us.

“The only thing you get is when the kids come in and they have a picture of their very first deer, first turkey. Or they say something happened at home, and we helped somebody be safe.”

And sometimes you get a smile from a child, Croft added. He keeps an album of children with their first deer.

“That’s the thanks you get,” he said. “The personal touches are what is special to us.”

Participants in the hunter education class must be at least age 10, and the card received is accepted in all states.

In West Virginia hunters age 15 and older must have a hunter’s education card to obtain a hunting license in the state.

It is also necessary for any hunter wishing to participate in the city of Wheeling’s “Urban Hunt.”

The Crofts’ class provides that certification while imparting information about safety and conservation.

“It’s full of safety. We don’t teach people to be hunters,” Harry Croft explained. “A lot of people who take the class aren’t even hunters. They do it for the safety and being around other people.”

The hunter education classes are three days sessions that take place at Cabela’s three times a year. Classes take place from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. The March session taking place in Ohio County was just completed, but future sessions are set for Sept. 12-14 and Oct. 17-19.

A National Bowhunters Education Class is scheduled for June 4 at the Wildlife League of Ohio County. The classes are all free. Those interested in participating should visit online wvhuntered.com or wvdnr.gov and click on the “find a class” registration link.