March 2025 • Nebraskaland 45
skies," she said. "I'm good."
Two hunters were successful on
opening morning. One was Lilly
Mortensen of Neligh. The 13-year-old
was participating in the 4-H shooting
sports program, and in order to move
up and shoot .22-cal. rifl es, she was
required to take hunter education.
There, she was selected to take part
in a mentored pheasant hunt. No one
in her family hunted, but this sparked
interest, and she was chosen for the
turkey hunt at Niobrara.
Paired with Katie Leware,
superintendent of Ponca State Park,
she saw several turkeys in the fi rst
hours of opening morning. The fi rst
was a tom that strutted for a while
at 80 yards, but came no closer. The
second was 30 yards from the blind,
but stayed behind some trees and
didn't off er a clear shot. "Then about
an hour and a half later there was
one that came from behind the blind,
and it was messing with the decoy,"
Mortensen said. "I didn't shoot that
one, but then after that one came
a bunch of them from over the hill.
I waited a while and there was one
about 15 yards away from the hunting
blind, and that's the one I shot. It was
really exciting."
"She couldn't keep a smile off her
face," Leware said. "She called the
birds in. She didn't shoot the fi rst one,
and took her time and made sure she
had a good, clean shot."
Mortensen passed away the
following October, surrounded by
family. Her parents, Adam and Kendra,
said she was ecstatic about the
experience she had on the mentored
hunt, and they shared her joy.
Another successful hunter was
Lennix Chavez. The 13-year-old had
moved to Verdigre from Colorado a
year earlier and became interested in
hunting. "It just sounded fun," he said.
His mother, Cassandra, went to
work trying to feed that interest. "I
was worried we wouldn't be able to
fi nd anybody to show him, but after
I sent a crazy number of emails,
somehow I got linked into these guys."
After completing hunter education,
Chavez was chosen to participate in
Successful hunters Lennix Chavez of Verdigre and Lillian Mortensen of Neligh pose with their birds and their mentors, Offi cer
Mitch Johnson of Crofton and Katie Leware of Ponca, on the fi rst morning of the hunt.
