AUGUSTA — Organizers of Maine’s first-in-the-nation Disabled Veterans Controlled Moose Hunt are seeking an additional $7,000 for this year’s five fall hunts.

The hunts, three in August and two in September, will originate in Bridgewater in Aroostook County.

The program is organized by the Maine Bureau of Veterans’ Services and the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

In partnership with Smoldering Lake Outfitters and other sponsors, the program provides permits, individual guides, all necessary equipment, meat processing, accommodations and travel for 25 disabled veterans.

The annual cost of the program exceeds $50,000 and is met entirely by sponsorships.

“I cannot say enough about what this experience has meant to me and the other veterans who participated,” said Ted Pietz, USMC, Vietnam. “My faith in humanity has been restored thanks to this hunt and the people who make it possible.”

For Vietnam veterans, the hunt is recognition of their service to our country and a sense of belonging, something they were regularly denied when returning home. To veterans of more recent wars, the hunt is a therapeutic opportunity to partake in an experience that helps them to more quickly assimilate to their disability.

“The hunt gave us the opportunity to heal from each other’s circumstances and we realized that even though we may feel alone, as veterans we are never alone,” said Jake Myrick, a retired U.S. Army sergeant who served in Kosovo, Korea and Iraq. “The hunt and its organizers did more for us in a few days than years of counseling could ever do.”

FMI, sponsor: 207-430-5816, 207-446-0168.