ASYMCA Day Retreat educates families

  • Published
  • By Gwenn McElwee
  • 97th Training Squadron
ALTUS AFB --  The ASYMCA had the pleasure of catering to two military families as we traveled to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge Oct. 25. We were entertained by a verbal tour of sites we traveled past given by Tech. Sgt. Roy Cowan, Family Readiness NCO, and Joan Wilcoxen, Armed Services YMCA Executive Director. This year is the state of Oklahoma's 100th Centennial year, many community events have been geared towards this theme including this year's auction.

As we drove down the hill side to the auction site, we could see the entire site sprawled out. I had the pleasure of speaking to a few farmers and some employees who worked at the refuge. They commented, "Normally we will have one or two school buses, but today has turned out to be bigger then we thought."

The bulls were auctioned off first, by the time the heifers came out the schools were leaving. You could hear the excitement from the children as they left. In our crew, the young children were allowed to go inside the teepees to see how it might have been to live inside one as the Indians did long ago.

Some of the reasons farmers buy bison is to eat them, to raise them and breed them. Normally they would not mix breed the buffalo with cattle due to the nature of the two beasts. Lon Ballou, an Oklahoma rancher, stated to mix these two types of animals it would have to be done in a lab. It does produce leaner meat. He also stated that he has heard of bison and cattle inner breeding naturally, but it is rare. He stated last time he bought 10, but this time he will end up with less. He was politely waiting on the side lines for the children to leave. He considers the big bulls to be more valuable. He went on to state, "The children did not bother me, I can always get where I need to be to place a bid."

As we traveled back to Altus Air Force Base, Sergeant Cowan drove the children in our group by the ground hogs. These little creatures were very active preparing for the winter, in and out of their holes. Today was a very educational experience, one that will be remembered.