Youth hunts underway outside Colfax

Garth Meyer, Whitman County Gazette | Oct 22, 20200

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Izaiah Trillas, 10, of Yakima, poses with the deer he got within two hours of his first day hunting on Oct. 17. Trillas, who has cancer, was here with Youth Outdoors Unlimited.

COLFAX - A 10-year-old boy with cancer came from Zillah got to hunt for the first time thanks to Youth Outdoors Unlimited.

Izaiah Trillas' hunt was held near Colfax this week as a four-day experience. He and his family stayed at a camp set up at the fairgrounds by the non-profit organization that's based in Moses Lake.

Trillas began the hunt Oct. 17, the first day of general-firearm deer season. Volunteers took him to a deer blind looking into trees in Tom Kammerzell's wheat field. Inside the small wood building, they waited quietly, but not for long. Trillas bagged his first deer in two hours.

At the fairgrounds, a six-person Y.O.U. camp crew set up an outfitters tent and ran a cook shack for the family.

"We tell the parents, you've done a great job of raising your child. Go sit in the corner. They belong to us for the next four days," said Dave Martin, of Zillah, vice president of the board of directors for Y.O.U.

Trillas, who had not hunted before, started with hunter's education before the trip. It was followed by shooting lessons.

"Not all of our kids harvest an animal," said Martin. "It's hunting. It's the camp experience, learning about animals and habitat. The whole package that they get."

Y.O.U. will host another hunt on the Kammerzell property with a boy from Spokane.