On the 01 April, I will be hosting my first Girls & Guns event of 2023, the date is quite appropriate seeing as last year I said I would not do anymore of these days!
On 16th April, it will be 2yrs since my mum, Shani, passed away, with Myeloma; Blood Cancer. She was 61. She had lived with that cancer from 2015-2021, and had been initially told she had 6mths to live and would never walk again, to which she replied ‘I don’t think so!’
The events are linked, as it was the loss of my mum, which led me to host for The Shotgun & Chelsea Bun Club in 2021, which then turned into me creating Girls & Guns.
Hosting for the S&CBC gave me something to focus on, to get me out the house and seeing people. The first event was not a huge success, combination of lack of advertising, experience in how to run these days and Covid, meant I had 7 ladies book on , but some of the ladies went on to become good friends of mine, and still stick with me now.
I learnt to work with the ground and get to know the staff and instructors more, and how to push the events, and the numbers attending grew, while I was still dealing with the fog of grief and loss of my mum. It become a personal challenge for me; to get these events out there & making the days more personal to those who attended, and it worked, booking numbers swelled from 7 to 15, to 49 and then 59. I had one of the days turned into a memorial shoot for my mum, with a charity raffle, and we raised over £1,000.00 for the Kettering Dialysis Unit.
I had always planned to step down after the December event, and to just slip back into just being ‘me’, but was asked to host one last event at the start of 2022 & received fallout from a couple of ladies who had floated the idea of running ladies days that were not under The S&CBC name, and that point I had declined, as my loyalty lay with VKL (owner of the S&CBC at the time).
When it was announced in 2021 that The S&CBC was to be sold, it felt even more right that I stepped down as host, and let a new face take on the role. I was offered the chance to carry on, but how the role was required to be vs how it was, didn’t suit me or how I ‘work’ & so I gave my notice and agreed an end date of when I would stop hosting for them. I still loved the club & support the new owner, but it was no longer a role for me that I felt I could put my heart & soul into, and I standby that. Those that have been on my events, now how much time, passion and effort I put into them, and I refuse to do a half-hearted effort. It’s very much all or nothing on them for me.
It was when i was told I had been awarded the BASC ladies star of shooting award in 2021, that the first glimmer of Girls & Guns come to light. After chatting to Kath at BASC ladies, about how many ladies had nominated me, I wanted to give them something back to say thank you, and that’s when the Shani Boswell memorial competition shoot came about. Once I had that all sorted, it was pointed out to me, how would I encourage ladies to book on and come to it, and so Girls & Guns was created, with the aim of the days being a fun & supportive way, of getting ladies to gain some experience for the competition shoot .
I certainly did not expect the events to be as popular as they were, and still are, with 60 ladies attending the competition shoot and £3,000.00 from a charity raffle & percentage of entry fees being raised. I had planned that event to be the last one; a final swan song and end on an amazing high after 2yrs of running successful ladies clay shooting events, while quietly dealing with my grief of losing my mum. But what I realise now is, I wasn’t dealing with it, I was using the events as a distraction from dealing with my grief and the loss, and processing it.
It does make me smile that some people seem to think I waltzed in and ‘stole’ the events/ladies from The S&CBC, as yes, the initial events at Sporting Targets were under their name, but it was me who was doing all the running, adverting, liaising with the ground, dealing with issues, dealing with the challenges of Covid (this was at the time of track & trace) and who had built them back up from v minimal bookings to the huge sell out days they had become. At the end of the day it’s down to the ladies who decide what events they attend, I don’t force them to choose one or another, but simply offer an alternative option.
This year I had said that I would not do anymore events, costs have increased and I knew I needed to sit with my grief and deal with it instead of keeping myself busy, but demand from ladies and support with pricing from the grounds has meant I have agreed to come back this year and run events as Girls and Guns, but I have learnt to balance things out better and the events will be more personal; with a discussion and explanation about my mum and how losing her, led to me doing these events.
We kick off 2023 with 39 ladies at Kibworth shooting ground and already have 20 ladies booked for the May event at Sporting Targets- so as long as there is still the demand, I will keep doing my days.
Clays2Game_lady 