Sarah Cox receives her Refuse To Be A Victim participation certificate from Ed O'Carroll.

Last month we told you how Sarah Cox, an alumna of the NRA's Youth Education Summit, was bringing the Refuse To Be A Victim® program to her hometown.

"It was during the National Youth Education Summit that I was introduced to the Refuse To Be A Victim® seminar. When I understood the objectives of this program, I immediately knew that I wanted to bring this award-winning personal safety course to my community," said Sarah.

With the help of Executive Counselor Ed O'Carroll, a Captain with the Fairfax County Police Department here in Virginia, Sarah did just that. She coordinated a Refuse To Be A Victim® seminar as well as an Instructor Development Workshop in Southern Pines, North Carolina last weekend.

The workshops were incredibly successful - 54 people attended the seminar and 11 of those, including Sarah, went on get their instructor certification.

Sarah has also been busy promoting NRA programs by speaking at local Friends of NRA Banquets and teaching gun safety to children through the Eddie Eagle GunSafe® Program.

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Southern Pines, North Carolina - Sarah Cox, an alumna of both the North Carolina State and National Youth Education Summits (YES), has been hard at work this year promoting the programs of the NRA within her community. Sarah has presented the Eddie Eagle GunSafe® Program to a local school and coordinated a Refuse To Be A Victim® seminar and Instructor Development Workshop to be held later this month. Earlier this year, Sarah spoke at both the Moore County and Pitt County North Carolina Friends of NRA banquets and shared her speech with NRAblog:

Southern Pines, North Carolina - The National Youth Education Summit (YES) was an experience that I will never forget. Not only was I able to enjoy fellowship with 45 like-minded peers, but I was also given the opportunity to tour and see behind the scenes of our wonderful history-filled capital, Washington D.C. Visiting monuments, touring the Capitol building, participating in drills at Quantico Marine Corps base, shooting in the range at NRA headquarters and attending a session of the Supreme Court were only a few of the events that constituted this wonderful week. As the week progressed, I began to question why YES was so focused on history. Why were we focusing so much time on the birth of our country and the founding of our nation? The majority of our time at YES was spent touring war monuments, looking at original documents such as the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, touring historical museums, and listening to speeches about our rich history and heritage at Hillsdale College's Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship.

Near the end of the week, I began to realize why America's history was so important to the NRA. I realized why we were not being tested on gun models or shooting skills and why this summit was not a "gun camp" but was really more of a history camp. I realized that the NRA is not only about firearms. The NRA is about protecting a means by which the people can protect their God-given rights. Thomas Jefferson once said, "The strongest reason for people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."

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Southern Pines, North Carolina - It's no secret that Sarah Cox is extremely active in the programs of the NRA. Last week we told you that the Youth Education Summit (Y.E.S.) alumna and scholarship winner has organized a Refuse To Be A Victim® Seminar and Instructor Development Workshop in her hometown. She's also been a speaker at several North Carolina Friends of NRA Banquets, which we'll tell you more about next week. But most recently, Sarah brought the Eddie Eagle GunSafe® program to a local school and shared her experience with NRAblog:

On the morning of Friday, March 2nd, I presented the Eddie Eagle GunSafe program to the kindergarten and first grade students of Calvary Christian School. It was a large and enthusiastic collection of more than thirty students ready to learn. All of the students were more than willing to hear about Eddie and eager to answer my questions. They loved the Eddie Eagle's motto, "Stop, Don't Touch, Leave the Area, and Tell an adult". After learning the Eddie Eagle chant and motions, everyone sat down to watch an Eddie Eagle video.

The Eddie Eagle workbook was well received as I presented it to them page by page. Gun safety scenarios were rehearsed and the students proved to be willing and zealous little actors. Each student received an Eddie Eagle Certificate of Completion after they successfully recited the Eddie Eagle chant.

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This week in 2010, NRAblog met the Bohns of South Dakota. They were in North Carolina for the Range Development and Operations Conference. Once again, here's their story:

Members of North Dakota's Fun Mart Cycle Center are looking to start an indoor range.

Charlotte, North Carolina - Tammy and Justin Bohn and three of their employees are attending this weekend’s NRA Range Development and Operations Conference in Charlotte, NC. The North Dakota-based couple were eager to tell NRAblog they have been blessed. “We have a very successful motorcycle dealership with 16 full-time employees,” Tammy said. (Check out their website: KTMhutt.com.) The couple are proud to have a close-knit staff at the dealership, including several nephews and other family members. “We even moved Aunt Linda up from Georgia to help with the store,” Tammy said.

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Thanks to Refuse To Be A Victim® Program Coordinator Ruthann Sprague for sharing the story of Sarah Cox. Through her participation in the Youth Education Summit (Y.E.S), Sarah became passionate about the Refuse To Be A Victim® Program. With the help of one of NRA's top Certified Refuse To Be A Victim® Executive Counselors, Sarah is bringing the nationally-recognized crime prevention program to her hometown.

Southern Pines, North Carolina – Sarah Cox, a high school senior from Southern Pines, North Carolina, became familiar with NRA programs when she attended the Youth Education Summit (Y.E.S.) in the summer of 2011. She was so impressed by the Refuse To Be A Victim® program she decided to become an instructor herself. She contacted Refuse To Be A Victim® Executive Counselor, Capt. Edward O’Carroll, of the Fairfax County Police Department in Virginia, and asked him if he would come down to Southern Pines to present a seminar for her community and conduct an Instructor Development Workshop.

"My Youth Education Summit experiences as well as my attendance at the annual NRA meeting in Charlotte in 2010 where I met NRA notables such as Chuck Norris, Oliver North, and Wayne La Pierre, have really opened my eyes to the importance of the NRA and its many programs. It was at the National Youth Education Summit that I was first introduced to the Refuse To Be A Victim® seminar. When I understood the objectives of this program, I immediately knew that I wanted to bring this award-winning personal safety course to my community," says Sarah.

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Nicole McMahon wrote this great follow-up to our announcement last year about the Western North Carolina Friends of NRA committee taking part in the 2012 African Sporting Expo. 

Charlotte, North Carolina - “The Essence of Africa Awaits You!” and so does the Western North Carolina Friends of NRA in Charlotte for the 2nd Annual African Sporting Exposition (ASE). ASE is an immersion into the wonders of Africa featuring a "who's-who" collection of the finest photo, hunting and fishing safari outfitters direct from the African continent as well as purveyors of exclusive sporting equipment, optics, African wildlife art, clothing and everything for the African aficionado.

“We are happy to see an international hunting show coming back to Charlotte,” said Doug Merrill, NRA Field Rep for Western North Carolina. “Gray Thornton, Vice President of Inyathi Productions, graciously provided ... more on the Western North Carolina Friends of NRA at African Expo ...

The Quarter 4 issue of Traditions Magazine, hitting households in January, contains a great article by Nicole McMahon on the North Carolina Youth Education Summit, which took place this past September and sees the top finishers go on to the National Youth Education Summit held in Washington D.C. each summer.

North Carolina’s Masterpiece Youth Summit

When it comes to piecing together Friends of NRA events, North Carolina’s field reps and volunteers are the puzzle masters. North Carolina consistently ranks as one of the top fundraising states in the nation, which allows its State Fund Committee to support a large number of grant requests year after year. It comes as no surprise that North Carolina’s field reps and a select number of volunteers can just as easily piece together a successful state Youth Education Summit (Y.E.S.).

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King, North Carolina - Summer brings about certain excursions for certain families. A visit to Grandma's house, a trip to the beach, or sending the kids to camp. There's one camp, YMCA's Camp Hanes in King, North Carolina, that added a particularly interesting course to their regular program ... shooting. Luckily, they were able to tap in to some local talent by way of NRA Board Member Richard Childress' grandson's Austin and Ty Dillon.

Taking a break from their busy racing careers (Austin sits in second place in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series while Ty is in first in the ARCA Racing Series,) the two stopped by ProShots Indoor Range to share their knowledge with the youths in that Camp.

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From Senior Event Services Coordinator Nicole McMahon:

Do you live in North Carolina? Are you a freshman, sophomore, or junior in high school and want to learn more about becoming an active citizen and the National Rifle Association? Do you have at least a 3.0 GPA on a 4.0 scale? Then apply to the 2010 North Carolina Youth Education Summit (Y.E.S.)! The deadline to apply is Wednesday, August 25.

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