Trap shooters from across the Okanagan came together to memorialize a Vernon man, Mike Heaton, in early May.
Hosted at the North Okanagan Trap and Skeet Club (NOTSC), the Mike Heaton Memorial Trap Shoot, on Saturday, May 11, provided the perfect send-off to the life of Mike, who died in July of 2023 after complications with thyroid cancer treatment.
"The shoot went good, and the people who knew him were there," said Mike's longtime wife, Sonja. "At the end, seven of them went up (two of my kids), and one clay pigeon was shot by them all and there was a moment of silence. It was lovely."
Ever since he was a kid, Mike craved the outdoors.
“My husband was always in a gun club, or hunting and fishing growing up with his father," said Sonja.
Mike got into trap shooting after his spinal cord injury in the 1990's, where he suffered bends from a commerical diving incident, which was just weeks after getting engaged to Sonja.
"The doctor's told him that he would never walk again," said Sonja. "But he told them 'screw you, I am running.'"
Sonja explained that Mike went from being paralyzed, to being on crutches, to walking with a cane, to walking without a cane.
"He was in shape, and defied the odds."
The Heaton family moved to Vernon from Prince Rupert in 2014, as the dry climate was a welcome relief to the chronic pain Mike endured. He then wasted no time in jumping into the North Okanagan lifestyle.
"He was really involved in the community," Sonja said. "He worked for the Canadian Mental Health Association where he was on the crisis line, which is what he thought was his calling. He then got into trap shooting and would volunteer there, to go along with making leather work and knives."
The trap shooting hobby was paramount throughout the nine years spent in Vernon for Mike, as he regularly attended NOTSC events and practices, right up until his death.
Sonja and Mike's son, JJ, who was at the memorial meet in May, thought the shoot was the perfect event to remember him by.
"In thinking about my father of the many things that come to my mind the most prominent would be a single word: Survival," he said. "Survival was key in my father's life, and I believe this was shown best in his teachings."
JJ explained that Mike was an "exceptional" outdoorsman, either fishing, hunting or shooting trap up at the NOTSC.
"We always shot together, but the sport meant two different things to us," JJ added. "For me, it was a fun thing to do on Sundays, but for him, it was his whole week."
The spinal cord injury of Mike's occurred before JJ was born, and doing most things "was a chore," according to JJ.
"But, he could still shoot and he was very good at it. It was what kept him going. Every hardship he endured during the week was to earn a few rounds on Sunday, with the only goal being to do it again next week."
The idea of doing a memorial shoot occurred after his passing when Sonja said Lisa Salt (president of the NOTSC) suggested it and "I thought it was perfect."
The goal is to one day do a shoot for juniors, in memory of Mike, as he was always "so into teaching them."
Sonja's daughter, Taylor Bell, Mike's step-daughter, agreed.
"The love he had for it came through when he was teaching all of us," she said. "He was always so careful, but made sure that we had the best time shooting."
Full results from the shoot can be found at shootnotsc.com/shoot-result.
