By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com

In the classic Christmas tale A Christmas Story, Ralphie met with constant rejection in his quest for a Red Ryder BB Gun with the phrase, “You’ll shoot your eye out.” It was a different story at Unger Park Thursday evening as the Crawford Park District held a BB gun shoot.

Hosted by Crawford Park District Naturalist Josh Dyer, the event featured eight different stations throughout the park. Each station had a cone, tape, safety glasses, and a stake to hold targets. After taking five shots at the target the marksmen would travel to the next target.

At the end, the top two marksmen with the most hits on a paper raccoon target would win a prize. Caden Boles, who attended the event with his sister Emma and his father Josh, was one of the top prize winners. Caden explained how it felt to be one of the winners.

“It feels good, I had never won anything before,” Caden said.

Misty Martin brought her daughters Sydney and Kylah to the event. Misty was thankful for the event.

“It was very nice that they had this available for the kids,” Misty said.

Sydney and Kylah Martin explained why they attended the event.

“We came out to just to try it,” Sydney said.

“And to shoot BB Guns,” Kylah added.

Chris Palmer, who attended the event to try out his new BB gun that he had received for his birthday with his dad Chris Sr., was the first to finish the shoot. Palmer, who finished in second place, explained what was his favorite part of the event.

“My favorite part was getting out into the pines and shooting the target,” Palmer said.

This was the first time that the Crawford Park District’s BB Gun Shoot event was held at Unger Park. It previously had been held exclusively at Lowe-Volk Park.