By www.BADF.org

A Sopchoppy, Florida resident has been named winner of a prestigious national award for physically challenged hunters. Jay Leonard, paralyzed from the waist down after falling from a tree stand in 1990, was named the “2006 Streamlight Challenged Hunter of the Year” by Buckmasters American Deer Foundation and Streamlight, a maker of quality flashlights based out of Pennsylvania. The award is given each year to an outstanding disabled outdoors person who has overcome great obstacles in order to participate in the sport of hunting, then applied his or her knowledge and insight to help and inspire others to do the same.

Leonard is a 50-year-old design draftsman who has been a hunter for 35 years. He has placed six deer in the Florida Buck Registry, including the state’s second-highest-scoring buck for 2005. But a primary consideration for awarding the honor to Leonard was his desire to give back others with disabilities. Leonard is a volunteer for many groups aimed at assisting other challenged hunters and youngsters, and he often holds seminars teaching how to successfully call in and take whitetails.

Leonard was very instrumental in helping expand the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s mobility-impaired person hunts by taking on-site tours of several properties to identify which tracts would prove suitable for the program. His award consisted of a special plaque and an all-expense-paid deer hunt where he was the guest of honor at Alabama’s Sedgefield Plantation during the Buckmasters Life Hunt Classic in January 2007. The event included 10 other adults and children with disabilities and life threatening illnesses, and will be televised on the Outdoor Channel in 2007. “I’m really thankful for all my friends, family and supporters who nominated and assisted me in putting together a resume that convinced Buckmasters to select a deer hunter from Florida," Leonard said.

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