KGOC Decoy Painting Event

King George Outdoor Club Paints Decoys
Mark Fike
As part of our club’s outdoor education goal, we took on a new event this year. We have done some waterfowl hunting presentations in the past, but we have not focused on waterfowl and the physiology of the birds.
This year Matt Limbrick (teacher and outdoor club leader) and I decided that we would get some decoys for the youth to paint and also provide a fact sheet for kids to learn about the particular species that they were going to paint. Limbrick is part of a waterfowling forum online and he put the word out what we were planning on doing and immediately got a response from a generous hunter who provided us with primed and unpainted decoys for the youth to paint.
I was able to contact Autumn Wings, a company in Minnesota, that makes finished and unfinished decoys.  They were able to provide us with some mallard, gadwall, pintail, Oldsquaw and harlequin decoys for the kids to learn about and paint. wwww.autumnwings.com
Fortunately for us, a local company provided us with a great assortment of brushes for the kids to use. Home Depot stores in Fredericksburg supported us in a huge way with paint for the kids to use on the Autumn Wings decoys which called for a specific type of paint.
VDGIF and the Virginia Wildlife Foundation awarded us a grant last year that included funds for the mallard decoy paint for the plastic decoys.
The half dozen students that joined us for the event were really into the painting and were amazed at how many different colors and hues that ducks have on them. They took their time painting and wanted to have a second meeting to do the job correctly. To that point, now we are planning a third and last session to actually finalize the painting. Students were very meticulous in their painting which is not easy like some might think.
I want to thank my daughters, KD and Kristy, for taking off school and work to come help out and assist as needed. Without them we could not have the club.
 
This program is supported by the 2018 Virginia Wildlife Grant Program through a partnership between the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and the Wildlife Foundation of Virginia.