Pulling for Veterans: Clay Shoot Has Raised Nearly $900,000 for PA Wounded Warriors

Since 2014, two local companies have been working together to quietly raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to help Pennsylvania-based veterans in need.

Joe Leahey, vice president of G.M. McCrossin Inc., and Adam Houseknecht, president and owner of Best Line Equipment, got to know each other through collaborating on construction projects over the years and often found themselves attending the same charity events. 

Leahey recalls, “We started to think, ‘Why don’t we do something like this ourselves, instead of just going to someone else’s event?’”

Both Leahey and Houseknecht liked the idea of supporting a veterans-related cause, in part because both of their companies employ a fair share of veterans. 

“There’s a high correlation of people who are in the trades who were also in the military. We see it in our businesses,” Houseknecht says. “We like to create a safe place for that to flourish inside our organizations.”

In their search for an appropriate beneficiary, they first reached out to the national Wounded Warriors Project. 

“They demanded money up front. Even though we hadn’t raised a penny, we would have had to pay them just to use their logo. So after talking to them, I said, ‘Well, you’re not the organization for us,’” Leahey says.

Further research led them to the PA Wounded Warriors, an all-volunteer nonprofit that has no ties to the national Wounded Warriors Project. PA Wounded Warriors helps Pennsylvania-based veterans in need by providing emergency financial assistance in the form of payments for rent, utility bills, medical bills, transportation, and more. The organization does not hold any fundraising events on its own; it relies solely on donations from other sources.

“The more we learned about them, the more we said, ‘We can’t NOT help this organization,’” Leahey says. “They’re amazing, they’re dedicated; they work seven days a week to help people. On top of that, they give 96 cents of every dollar directly to help a veteran or active-duty military person in need.” 

With a cause identified, the next step was to create a nonprofit organization operating separately from the two businesses. They named the new 501(c)(3) the Endurance Organization. Leahey says an attorney offered his services pro bono in order to help the new organization set up its own set of bylaws. The organization is guided by a six-person board made up of Leahey, Houseknecht, and employees from each business. 

Finally, they had to decide upon an event. They landed on the idea of something a little out of the norm—a sporting clay shoot—with an eye toward making it something that their employees could participate in and enjoy. 

“We have seen other outfits put together clay shoots to raise money, and they do a nice job and they give money away, and they do it for the right reasons. But it’s not as easy for hourly employees to afford to do something like this. … This allows us to give them access to a higher-end level event that they hardly have to pay money for, and we’re doing it for the right reasons,” explains Houseknecht. 

With the help of their vendors, who acted as sponsors for the event, and with the cooperation of their employees, in 2014 the group pulled together their first event in the course of just two months, holding it at the Warriors Mark Wingshooting Lodge near Houtzdale.

“We decided in July to do the event, and we held it in September,” Leahey says. “We raised $50,000 to donate to PA Wounded Warriors at that one event.”

Since then, the invitation-only clay shooting event has become a beloved annual tradition, marking its tenth anniversary this September. The event has grown to accommodate a field of 200 shooters and raise over $100,000 each year, making it PA Wounded Warriors’ largest financial contributor. At its current pace, the Endurance Organization is on track to crest a total of $1 million in donations to PA Wounded Warriors after the 2024 event.

In addition to a friendly twenty-one-station clay shooting competition, the day includes food, a DJ, prizes, gun raffles, and an auction. Some recent speakers at the event have include U.S. Representative Glenn Thompson and Pennsylvania State Senator Cris Dush. 

“It’s just a really fun, high-energy day,” Leahey says. “We have people show up who’ve never shot a gun before, and some people who shoot every night. Seeing those people mix, it’s fun.”

The event draws plenty of willing volunteers, including service organizations such as Boy Scout Troops, as well as employees and vendors who work with McCrossin and Best Line. Company employees have also been known to donate auction items they have built themselves, like a gun cabinet and a live-edge table.

The Endurance Organization has never advertised the clay shoot, and Leahey and Houseknecht generally shy away from publicity, saying the event has reached a manageable size they are comfortable with.

“We try to keep it controlled so we can sustain it over the long haul,” Leahey says. 

“We don’t have a goal to take this thing to the moon. Our goal is to kind of keep this thing as it is,” Houseknecht adds. “We don’t like to publicize it, but our employees deserve to be celebrated for what they are doing to help the community.”

Houseknecht and Leahey also hope that by sharing the story of the Endurance Organization’s fundraising success, they might inspire other small companies to follow their lead and explore creating their own charitable events to make an impact for a worthy cause. The key, they say, is finding an event and a cause that resonates with their employees, and giving them an opportunity to fully participate seems to be the key to success.

“We are two small-town businesses who want to serve those who served others, and we are doing it by providing our employees a path to also contribute and to have fun while we’re doing it,” Houseknecht says. “There’s no reason why other small organizations couldn’t do this. We started small, and now we raise consistently over $120,000 every year. It’s significant.” 

“A lot of people might be reluctant to try to start something on their own because it may seem too daunting. But one thing I think we’ve found is, our employees took care of a lot of things and helped this effort along,” Leahey adds. “It’s a lot of work, and our employees are invaluable. It’s amazing what they’ve stepped up and done.” T&G

Karen Walker is a freelance writer in State College.

For more information or to donate, visit enduranceorg.com or pawoundedwarriors.org.