BLAZE Magazine Special Edition 2006-2016 | Page 22

Travel & Trails
INSPIRATION
COMES IN
ABUNDANCE
Tori Blocker of Mobile, Ala., used adaptive equipment, the iScope, to bag a
nice eight-point buck at the Buckmasters Life Hunt at Sedgefields Plantation
in west central Alabama. Her dad, Phillip, right, and Rusty Morrow of the
Alabama Conservation Enforcement Officers Association help celebrate
Tori’s deer. (David Sullivan)
AT THE ANNUAL BUCKMASTERS LIFE HUNT
AT SEDGEFIELDS PLANTATION IN WEST CENTRAL ALABAMA
By David Rainer
E
ach year, the Buckmasters American
Deer Foundation selects about
a dozen hunters with significant
challenges to everyday life. Jimmy
Hinton’s family and a host of volunteers work
year-round to ensure that accommodations
make it as easy as humanly possible for these
hunters to enjoy hunting for two-and-a-half
days in some of the best deer woods in the
South.
numerous body systems and can cause organ
damage and death. home and love her because they couldn’t tell
us how long she would live.”
“The disorder causes a build-up of fatty tissue
and can cause leaky (heart) valves, bone
defects and organ damage,” said Tori’s father,
Phillip “PJ” Blocker. “If left untreated, it can
cause organ failure.” Now 16-plus years later, Tori and her dad
started hunting by taking advantage of the
Alabama Department of Conservation and
Natural Resources’ Hunting and Fishing
Trail for People with Physical Disabilities.
Visit http://www.outdooralabama.com/sites/
default/files/2014-Hunting%26FishingTrail.
pdf for more information on the trail.
Two young ladies with vastly different
backgrounds and challenges provide that
inspiration for everyone who loves the great
outdoors. Tori plans to graduate from high school
next year but not before she has another
hip replacement surgery. When Tori was 10
months old, she went to Duke University for
a stem cell transplant. Since then, Tori has
undergone numerous surgeries.
Victoria “Tori” Blocker of Mobile, Ala., was
born with a genetic defect called MPS 1
(Mucopolysaccharidosis), which affects “We don’t know how long we’ll have her,”
Phillip said. “She’s doing well right now. After
we went to Duke, they told us just to take her
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| SPECIAL EDITION 2006-2016
But the first item on the agenda was finding
the right adaptive equipment for Tori, who is
legally blind and confined to a wheelchair.
Phillip adapted a Caldwell Deadspot TreePod
gun rest to her wheelchair. Then he heard of a
product called an iScope, which fits over the
end of the scope and the sight picture with
Accept No Limits | outdoorwomenunlimited.org