By Alan Campbell

Review Contributor

Jim and Lisa Standal were looking for a way to introduce their daughter into hunting as a family, and the PATH foundation provided it.

Jane Standal, a sophomore at Lake Orion High School, harvested a 17-point buck in early October while accompanied by her parents. She was participating in a high-fence hunt at Double D Ranch in Lake, Mich., though a program run by the nonprofit “Passing Along The Heritage (PATH).”

“To her, it was an adventure,” said Lisa, a retired teacher from Rochester Community Schools. “She talked about it all the time. Jim and I have tried to provide her with experiences through our travels and different things we’ve done with her. We think experiences are how you grow. Outdoors was her classroom.

“We’re a family that has spent as much time outdoors as we can.” Jim, a police officer with Huron Clinton Metro Parks, grew up hunting pheasants with his father. He still enjoys bird hunting near Oscoda with Dublin, the family’s pointing lab, and tags one or two deer annually while hunting private land in Oakland County.

Handing down that hunting tradition to Jane, a special needs student, proved challenging until he heard about the PATH organization through friends.

“I’m very excited to be able to go out and introduce her into hunting. Sometimes dads need other dads to coach their daughters. We wouldn’t be able to reproduce this atmosphere, the camaraderie. It’s not just the hunt,” Jim said.

Jane raved about the experience.

“It was really run. I was excited,” she said.

PATH has provided 31 big game hunts this fall to qualified applicants, including two fair-chase bear hunts made possible when successful lottery winners donated their licenses. The organization specializes in providing physically challenged people with chances to hunt and fish.

Double D Ranch is owned by Dennis and Kim Dobson from Kinde. They built the ranch with PATH in mind, making the facility completely handicapped accessible.

“Applicants are mostly from Michigan, Indiana and Ohio,” said PATH president Bob Knoop of Gaines. “We don’t provide transportation, but we provide everything else — lodging, meals, taxidermy and butchering.”

Knoop said PATH’s good works are made possible through a $100,000 budget with revenues coming from a raffle, banquet and private donors. The all-volunteer organization has no employees. Many of its board members have been touched by personal experiences made passible by PATH.

“They see what we do and fall in love with it and raise their hands to help. I tell them all the time that I get more out of it than hunters get out of it. It’s hard to have a bad day when you’re with these people and see what great attitudes they have,” Knoop said.