2005 - A Season of Sweet Success

November 22, 2005 • Voyageur Press

Try to imagine, if you can, losing all of your physical abilities in one moment in time. All the things we do, whether it be walking, jogging, painting, cooking – even getting out of bed in the morning... all the things we take for granted are suddenly impossible to do. Or are they?

After an accident left Andy Streeter a paraplegic, there were plenty of things he was told he would not be capable of doing. But talk is cheap. For Andy, the time since the accident has been spent trying his hardest to regain abilities, not sit back and lament on whether or not those abilities were possible. With his own determination, and that of his parents, Todd and Bev Streeter, Andy has made incredible strides and continues to baffle his occupational therapists at Courage Center in Golden Valley. “Normally, they (Courage Center) get people to a certain level and then turn them out into the world in about six or eight months,” said Todd. “Andy’s been there for about 14 months now, because he continues to improve.”

It was business as usual for most hunters this firearms season: setting up deer camp, going to the stand, doing drives, etc. For Andy, it was an exciting opportunity to get back part of his life that many thought he would never have again.  On the second weekend of hunting season, Todd and Andy would be two of the hunters hitting the woods. It would be anything but ‘ordinary’ or ‘business as usual’ as Todd helped his son prepare for their trek to family-owned property north of Tamarack. Todd’s father, Gene, was also hunting at his stand on the property.

Once there, Todd transferred Andy to a Polaris Ranger 4x4, which comes equipped with a gun rest mounted on a turret. The windshield flips up, making it possible for Andy to sit inside the cab and manipulate his gun with his shoulders when taking aim. Since he’s not quite able to squeeze the trigger yet, a special hand brace was constructed to keep his trigger finger in the ‘pulling trigger’ position. This allows Andy to hook his finger in the mechanism and pull back with his arm to fire his rifle. “We got out in the morning, about nine o’clock,” Andy started. “We went out to what we call my ‘creek stand’ – it’s a mound that overlooks my old stand where the creek goes through.” 

They sat there for a few hours but saw nothing, so the decision was made to move on. “At about three o’clock we headed for the food plot,” he went on. “I saw these ears moving in the brush and I wanted Dad to take the safety off but he said it was looking straight at us and not to move or we’d scare it away.”

The deer became nervous and ran behind a tree which worked to Andy’s advantage, since Todd had to take the gun off safety. “It [the deer] came back out and I ended up shooting it. I wasn’t even sure it was the same deer that came out before because all of the sudden we saw a couple of tails running.”

Not knowing that his grandson had a shooting opportunity going on, Gene had exited his stand early and was walking up behind the Ranger which spooked the deer. It didn’t matter much – Andy dropped the deer with one shot from his Remington 243, at a distance of 80 to 85 yards.

“You should have said it was 400 yards, on a dead run,” commented one of the members of their hunting party who overheard what Andy was saying. “See, you’re a young guy... someday you’re gonna learn that.”

In other words, they’re good story tellers. It didn’t matter to Andy. “It was so awesome,” he said. “I was on a good high the rest of that week. We had it video taped so we’re going to bring it down there this week to let all the therapists watch it.”

Andy has shot 12 to 15 deer in his life, nothing big. “The biggest deer I’ve shot was a little four pointer so I’ve never even seen anything with a good rack on it in the woods.”

Even so, this hunt was a memorable one. “ It was super exciting.”

It’s not often we get a second chance at things in life, especially when sustaining an injury such as the one Andy has. His whole life changed. It’s great to see, however, that he’s regaining abilities and looks forward to the day when he can get out of the cities and back to the area he loves. 

This hunting season was filled with hopes of success and, for the Streeters, it was a sweet success indeed. So, what did Andy shoot? Upon hearing that he had bagged a deer, I had emailed earlier to congratulate him. He spoke to his dad Friday morning.

“You can tell we live in a small town,” Todd recalled. 

Andy’s comment was, ‘My doe turned into an eight point buck.’”