Human trafficking happens in every city across our country. It happens in the places we would “expect it”—and yet, the majority is done in ways and places we would not expect. It’s not just the massage parlors, it’s the family member selling the child. It’s any time someone, man or woman, is made to perform labor or a commercial sex act through force, fraud or any form of coercion—and the money given in exchange never reaches the person performing the work. It is pure abuse and manipulation.
“In America, it is a market that is growing exponentially, putting $975 million in the pockets of human traffickers every year.”
—DeliverFund
And this is why we decided to run the 2023 USPSA New Hampshire State Match as a charity match to benefit DeliverFund—to step forward and actively participate in the fight against human trafficking.
DeliverFund is a 501(c3) nonprofit organization committed to equipping law enforcement with the training and technology they need to fight human trafficking at scale. Human traffickers see victims as products that they can replace. When one victim escapes or is rescued, they seek out another to fill their place. DeliverFund’s strategy is to take down human trafficking networks, creating an exponential impact. They work directly with law enforcement, in collecting data, training teams and building a network to work across state lines. With several individuals on their team having a background in counterterrorism, they are using the same tactics that they used to find terrorists to track human traffickers. Their fight in this battle against human trafficking is essential.
Our goal with the 2023 USPSA New Hampshire State Match was to raise awareness about human trafficking, about DeliverFund, taking the time to have a conversation about this topic and run a match that would be remembered for diverse, challenging and fun stages. If we raised some money for DeliverFund in the process, that was going to be awesome, but the primary goals are listed above.
The match was held at Pioneer Sportsmen’s Club in Dunbarton, New Hampshire, on June 8, 2023.
Little did we know how our sponsors, staff and competitors would come together to make this match one for the books.
To start with, our Title Sponsor, Outdoor Dynamics, came on early in the planning stages. John Royer, the owner, was 100 percent on board with making this match happen and running it to benefit DeliverFund. The support and generosity we received was humbling.
To give you an idea of who we got to work with, I’m going to share a quick conversation I had with John. We knew we wanted to have matching hats for our staff as a gift for them. The goal was to have the DeliverFund logo and Outdoor Dynamics logo highlighted somewhere on the hats. John said he would take care of the project, as long as I picked the colors, which I did and then I moved on. About a month later, I received a text and a picture of the hats from John. They looked fantastic, but I was concerned because there was no Outdoor Dynamics logo found on them. I asked John about it immediately. His response—“DeliverFund needs the exposure for what they do.” My goal with sponsors is to give them as much exposure as I can, and therefore these hats were one of the ways to make that happen. John’s recognition of what we were doing was highlighted in that moment, and it was just one of many ways Outdoor Dynamics and our other sponsors came on board to support the 2023 USPSA New Hampshire State Match.
Other sponsors include Davinci Machining, Ben Stoeger Pro Shop, Red Hill Tactical and Sig Sauer as Division Sponsors. Stage Sponsors were GrayGuns, Glock, Hunter’s HD Gold, Lane Shooting and Training, Shooting Craft and Black Dog Firearms Training. The Gold and Local sponsors consisted of Ear Safety Systems, Foster Materials, Jay’s Gun Shop, Hampton Inn, Starline Brass, Red’s Shoe Barn and Salomon. All of these companies came on board and generously supported the match through prizes for our staff and competitors or donations to our raffle. We can not thank them enough for choosing to work alongside us and helping make this match happen.
Speaking of raffles, remember the goal of this match was to raise awareness, educate and have a great match. If we could raise funds for DeliverFund, that would be a bonus. Due to our generous sponsors and the phenomenal items that they donated, and through each and every person—whether they were competitors, staff or just visitors coming to see the match—people gave their money and bought tickets. We raised $20,000 for DeliverFund by the end of the event, and we want to give a huge thank you to everyone involved with that.
Talking about people to thank for making this match happen. There are a few individuals I specifically need to mention and give credit to. Mason and Kaylee Lane, Bob Young and CT Practical Shooters were the stage designers. The technical stages they created were each truly different and had so many options. With a round count of 242 over the course of 10 stages, they made them a challenge to shoot by using one-two movers on every stage, the use of 29 steel and a balanced range of close and further distance shots.
I love how you can put a stage together on paper, but when you go to put it on the ground things can change drastically. Stage 9, a fan favorite at the match, was a 21-round long course that once building was completed, looked little like the diagram, but the flow and challenge of the stage was fantastic. Anyone coming off stages 9 and 10 and then moving across our range to Stage 1, saw the difference in stage designs. Two quick and close stages followed by a large, long-distance stage that had a swinger at 30 yards. You then moved to Stage 2 that was held within Pioneer’s house bay. This stage consisted of shooting all within a building but had two moving targets that were activated through two electronic eye beams designed by one of our own “stage-equipment-builder-enthusiasts,” Phil Chase. Stage 3 had a periscope that the “Lane Team” were super excited to build and use at the match. You had to use the periscope to view the second half of the stage and if you timed it right, the drop turner was worth the points instead of taking No-Penalty Mikes. This was just a taste of how different they all were. We could not have asked for a better team to put stage designs together.
The staff at the 2023 USPSA New Hampshire State Match was an amazing team. I started talking to people almost a year in advance and each person looked at me and said, “if I can take the time off, I will be there.”
As January approached and we were six months away, I sent the email asking who was interested in staffing. By the time registration opened at the end of January, we were fully staffed with a waitlist. I recognize as someone who staffs matches across the country, that although staffing is something many of us truly enjoy doing, it is also a sacrifice of time, energy, and money. The team we had at the 2023 USPSA New Hampshire State Match was handpicked and we’re honored by the support received from this talented group. I’m actually going to take a moment and brag on them. I received several comments from different competitors how much they appreciated the professionalism and consistency found on each stage with our staff. As the match director, I was once again hit with how blessed we were to build the team we had.
I would be remiss if I did not mention the core team at Pioneer Sportsmen’s Club. Pioneer hosted the match and between Kevin Anderson working on registration and scoring, Phil Chase, Mark White and Chris Tessier as our quartermaster (and Mr. Fixit), Udo Schneider as our match sponsorship coordinator and all the people behind the scenes—they make the major matches we run at Pioneer run like a “well-oiled machine.” David Bold, our range master, I can safely say is a part of our “machine” as Dave has been apart of multiple USPSA Area 7 Championships and other major matches we’ve hosted. This match would not have happened without all of their dedication and attention to detail that they bring.
The competitors that we had come through and shoot the match were as always, a reminder of why the shooting community is so awesome. The laughter, camaraderie, focus, determination and competitive nature were all a part of the match. We had competitors that ranged from beginners shooting their first major USPSA match, to national champions competing for the stage and, ultimately, division and match wins.
If I were to choose one thing, that I hoped people walked away from with this match, it would be the desire to “Have a Conversation.” Talk about what is happening with human trafficking here in the United States and across our world. Don’t normalize it by our silence. Educate and find ways to be involved. We need more law enforcement agencies to hear about this organization and to partner with them. So have a conversation. This match ended and we all had a great time, but we ended it with a desire to come back next year with another match that will top this one, along with bringing in DeliverFund in a bigger way and encourage more conversations.
With that being said, the 2024 USPSA New Hampshire State Match benefitting DeliverFund will be conducted May 30 to June 1. Look for it on Practiscore and join us for another amazing match.
You can learn more about DeliverFund at www.deliverfund.org.
Article from the January/February 2024 issue of USPSA’s magazine. Photos by Erinn O’Donnell.
