ESPN Outdoors


The mother of invention When one foundation wouldn't grant Tina Pattison's son his last wish to go moose hunting, she took matters into her own hands By Ron Schara Host of ESPN2's Backroads with Ron & Raven

The mother of invention in this story is, in fact, a mother: Tina Pattison of Harborcreek, Pa., is the 46-year-old mother of six boys, and the grandmother of one.

In 1998, one son, 18-year-old Matt, fell extremely ill with Hodgkin's disease. An avid outdoorsman, Matt also knew his life might be short. He asked for a last wish. He wanted to go moose hunting.

	“	No parent should have to worry about a child's dream being fulfilled. ”
		— Tina Pattison

His mother called the Make-A-Wish Foundation, an international organization whose mission is to help extremely ill youngsters fulfill a dream.

"No parent should have to worry about a child's dream being fulfilled," Tina Pattison said.

But Make-A-Wish said no. If the dream is hunting, the kid's out of luck.

"Safety reasons," Tina Pattison was told.

But there was one more reason. It's the story of Eric Ness, a Minnesota teen-ager who was stricken with brain cancer.

In 1996, Make-A-Wish arranged for Eric, of White Bear Lake, Minn., to have his dream come true. Eric Ness asked to go to Alaska to hunt the giant Kodiak brown bear.

Overnight, Eric's request made national headlines as animal-rights groups rushed to the media to publicly ridicule his last wish.

His life was threatened. Security guards led him through the St. Paul-Minneapolis airport. Newspaper reporters wanted to know if he could defend his request, as if bear hunting was something sinister.

At the time, Kodiak bear populations were high and stable. Hunting bears was a legal activity with permits limited by Alaska's wildlife agency. In fact, Kodiak bear management is still a success story today.

However, healthy bear populations weren't enough to stop the animal-rights campaign against Eric Ness. They were out to shame a young hunter, and they smelled blood.

Hollywood celebrities invited Eric to do something else, something "non-violent" for his last wish. Important wildlife "news" like that makes People magazine.

When Eric returned home (he didn't get a bear), he sat in his living room and recalled his unexpected notoriety.

He had read the newspaper stories about how awful he was for being a hunter. He had watched the protesters on television chanting and holding signs that chastised him and the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

"Was that painful to go through?" a visitor asked Eric.

The young man, who was weak from chemotherapy treatments, shook his bald head, "Yes." And tears streamed down his face.

Shortly after, Make-A-Wish bowed to the animal extremists, although Eric finally enjoyed a successful bear hunt, paid for by the Safari Club. Months later, Eric lost his life to cancer.

When Tina Pattison realized Make-A-Wish wouldn't help her son, she did what mothers often do. She didn't take no for an answer.

"Why not form my own foundation to fulfill hunting and fishing wishes of sick kids?" she asked herself.

In 1999, Pattison formed a new nonprofit organization called Hunt of a Lifetime.

"I didn't want to see another parent go through that," she said. "I don't want to see another mother go through the channels I had to go through."

Yes, her son Matt finally got his wish to hunt moose. He died in 1999 at the age of 19.

"To date, we've helped 29 children, boys and girls, fulfill their hunting or fishing dream," Pattison said.

"I know what it meant to my son to go on that moose hunt. It's bad enough having to deal with cancer itself. Beating down doors to find a wish shouldn't be necessary."

Pattison said her organization, Hunt of a Lifetime, is run by volunteers with no salaried employees at the moment.

"We pay a lawyer and an accountant when we use them," she said. "We want the donations to go to the children."

The organization operates on donations of money, volunteer time and trip donations from outfitters, hotels and airlines. To reach Hunt of a Lifetime, call (800) 484-4948 or visit its web site at www.huntofalifetime.org.

Pattison, a housewife who drives a school bus part-time, said she spends much of her free time going to sports shows to spread the word about Hunt of a Lifetime.

"It's difficult getting the word out," she said. "We had two boys die before we could help them."

Now that Hunt of a Lifetime is growing, Pattison said, something else is starting to rear its ugly head.

"I'm starting to get e-mails and phone calls from animal-rights people about how terrible I am."

July through September 2002, Ron Schara's "Backroads with Ron & Raven" airs Sundays on ESPN2 at 8 a.m. ET. He also appears in a short feature Saturdays on ESPN2 at 7:55 a.m. ET. Click here to view this week's show descriptions.

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