My Job … My Outdoors: She found her passion a little later in life, but is making up for time lost
December 16, 2009 by Women's Outdoor News
We’ve all heard about Michigan’s unemployment rates. Fortunately, for Kalamazoo resident Sheila Hoekstra, her passion and her job fused and for now, it looks like she has job security. Sheila works at a gun store and we all know that the trend toward gun purchases is indirectly proportional to the unemployment rate in Michigan and other industrial states. Sheila came to the shooting world later in life, and you’ll be able to read between the lines and discover her enthusiasm for this empowering sport.
My Job
I am probably one of the luckiest women in the world because I get to work at a gun store. Not many women ever find their passion in life and I was fortunate enough to find a hobby that I absolutely love, which is competitive handgun shooting; United States Practical Shooting Association (UPSA), International Confederation Of Revolver Enthusiasts (ICORE) and steel matches are my favorite. About a year ago we went through the wonderful job changes that everyone in Michigan has encountered. However, I get to work at a gun store, and this year they have sold 8,500 firearms and December is not over yet. Thank you, Obama.
Sheila Hoekstra instructs a new shooter at Babes with Bullets Camp, a Smith & Wesson sponsored Ladies Action Shooting Camp held at Brownells last September. Photo by Barbara Baird.
I also love teaching women how to properly shoot handguns. Also, I’m a NRA Basic Pistol instructor, and my husband and I also teach basic instruction to USPSA and ICORE. At our local gun club we run a new shooters class as an introduction to handguns. Since I’ve been working at the store I’m able to reach so many more ladies. In fact, more than 400 new shooters have taken the class in the last year, and 10 of those women attended the Babes with Bullets camp, for which I am also a Junior Instructor.
My Outdoors
Our family vacations are now scheduled around shooting matches that we want to attend. My husband, Todd, and I shoot together every weekend if we get the chance. I’m sponsored by www.bcarmory.com, and they built both my STI guns. We have several friends that will travel with us. We’ve shot in Iowa in July at 100 degrees and in December in Detroit where we hope the temperature will reach 30 degrees, with no snow.
There is nothing better than being on the range, doing what you love the most. I always say to new shooters, “It took me 32 years to find a hobby that I love. It doesn’t matter what it is but you need something in your life that is for you, besides being a wife and mother and going to work everyday.”
It has changed my life dramatically, and I agree with the adage of “If Mom is happy in the house, everyone is happy!”
Sheila's competition guns.
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As a new shooter and alumni of Babes with Bullets, I could see the enthusiasm and desire to help other women learn to love shooting in everything Sheila did at camp. As a lefty, I’ll be forever grateful to her for switching the magazine release on the S& W M&P 9mm pistol I used during camp from the left side to the right side.
Hurray for Sheila! It was so great to meet you….I’m soooooo looking forward to the Niles camp! Let me know the date…