Kingston, Ont. parents honour daughter through skeet shooting

On Saturday at the Kingston Trap, Skeet and Sporting Clays Club, members of the skeet shooting community came together for a cause bigger than the sport.

Fifteen years ago, Jessie Arthur, a promising 13-year-old girl with a bright future in sports, died of leukemia, leaving her family devastated.

“She was loving and she was so giving and she was such a great girl,” said Jessie’s mother, Kerry Arthur.

Instead of letting the tragedy hold the family back, they decided to turn it into something better, to honour their beloved daughter.

For five years after her death, they hosted a softball tournament to raise money to send local elementary students to summer camp.

Her father, Bill Arthur, says the idea for a skeet shooting fundraiser came to him not long after he joined the club.

“Her favourite things were sports and going to camp. The very first year we were doing fundraising, we sent two kids the first year, then we’ve just continued to go, and grow,” he said.

Saturday marked the fifth annual skeet shoot for Jessie’s Camp Fund, and by the end of this year, the endeavour will have sent 143 Kingston children to summer camps, all in Jessie’s honour.

“We thought, you know, let’s see how long we can go and even if we can send kids to camp for a couple of years, and now we’re on year 15 and like Bill said, we’re at 143 kids so far have gone to camp,” Kerry said.

Shooters lined up all morning to practise their aim, with Bill among them.

Kids as young as 10 and seasoned shooters as old as 80 were among the 80-plus shooters who showed up to raise money for the camp fund.

There are prizes for high-scoring shooters, food, friends and even a raffle.

“It takes a lot of leg work and a lot of time. Without my wife and daughters, there’s no way we’d get there,” Bill added.

Kerry said: “I think Jess would be really proud. It’s her birthday; she would’ve been 30 next week.”

Since they began hosting the skeet shooting event, they’ve raised approximately $40,000.

by Global News