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The Guilford Bowhunters club recently made Christmas more joyful for the families of a dozen Sedalia Elementary students.

The group bought gifts, largely clothing and grocery-store gift cards, for needy families. They also used wish lists from the families, passed along by guidance counselor Judy Hyman.

The group, which has done the Christmas project for four or five years, raises the money from within the club.

Hunting contests, raffles and member donations pay for the gifts. Also, some members and their families choose to buy all of the presents for a specific family.

On Dec. 11, the bowhunters and their families gathered at their clubhouse in McLeansville to celebrate and wrap the presents.

"It kind of helps everybody get into the Christmas spirit," Jerry Alcon said. Alcon is the group's vice president, and he organized the holiday project.

"It's very important to us," he said. "We understand there's a tremendous number of families out there who don't get to have Christmas."

But the club doesn't just help the community during the holiday season.

Throughout the year, Guilford Bowhunters donates deer meat to the school.

Whenever they kill a deer, club members have the option to donate it to hungry families. The meat is ground and divided up into two-pound portions. Then the meat is frozen until the next dropoff at the school. The club has dropped off 40 pounds of meat so far this school year.

Hyman distributes the meat to the needy families.

"She puts in a lot of time and effort," Alcon said. "If it weren't for her we wouldn't be able to do what we do."

Guilford Bowhunters is a nonprofit organization. It isn't a hunting club, but rather a group of men and women united by a common interest in bowhunting. The group doesn't lease or own hunting land, so the hunters don't usually go out in groups.

The club has monthly meetings as well as family gatherings about five times a year.

The club's goals include youth education and conservation. On most weekends, club members are teaching archery somewhere in the state, or even in Virginia or Tennessee.

Many classes are taught to Boy Scouts troops, as well as church or wildlife groups.

For information, e-mail 2hunt@bellsouth.net

Contact Jamie Kennedy Jones at jamie.kennedy@news-record.com or 449-4610.