COUNTY LIFE
Education, shooting: Couple combines their passions to assist others
Michael Higgins and his wife Melinda Branchini of Forestburg. (Photos by Dani Blackburn)
By DANI BLACKBURN
Michael Higgins and his wife, Melinda Branchini, of Forestburg found a way to ingeniously unite their two passions — education and shooting — in a way that gives back others when they created the Higgins Branchini Shooting Foundation.
The HBSF is a national charitable organization providing funds to collegiate students competing in clay target shooting sports.
“We don’t have any children and we wanted to give back,” explained Branchini. “I’m interested in academics and my husband is interested in shooting, so we blended the two.”
HBSF is possibly the only organization of its kind giving grants to individual collegiate shooters rather than groups and teams. Since its creation, the organization has given $120,000 to students at 42 different universities in 22 different states from California to Connecticut.
Higgins began shooting at nine-years-old with rifles, before trying a shotgun with moving targets. He eventually grew tired of clay targets and discovered Helice in the early ‘90s. He was hooked.
“I thought moving targets were more fun than stationary, and I’m a capitalist at heart and realized I could compete and make money. I mostly paid for college doing that, I went to the Olympic stuff, I didn’t make the team, but got close,” recalled Higgins.
Read the full feature in the mid-week News.
The May 8 deadline is almost here for the 2024 Keepsake Graduation section produced by The Bowie News. It is the only section where you will see senior photos of every high school in Montague County and Bellevue.
If you want to honor your graduate with a special ad or your business wants to congratulate a working senior, call 872-2247 or print a copy of the submission form at bowienewsonline.com. The section will publish on May 22.
This weekend find the deals in the City of Bowie Community-wide garage sales April 26-27.
See the map of a garage sale locations in Bowie in the mid-week Bowie News.
By BARBARA GREEN
[email protected]
The big take-away from Tuesday’s Bowie Business Boost was time: “It only takes six seconds to make an impression in life.”
Lorie Vincent, certified economic developer, professional trainer and writer, was speaker for program number three of Bowie Boost with a focus on “Memorable Marketing in a Post-Pandemic Era.”
She opened about how she had started her business, ‘Acceleration by Design,’ and things were “rocking,” when 2020 came and things changed with the worldwide pandemic. As things began to reopen it appeared there were more opportunities but also more challenges.
Vincent laughed as she showed a Richard Simmons “Sweating to the Oldies,” infomercial that became one of the most popular and still running ads.
“Can you believe back then we would call a 1-800 number and give someone our credit card? That is crazy. They used big music, big voices and big adjectives,” exclaimed Vincent.
Read the full story in the mid-week Bowie News.
(Top photo) Lorie Vincent, Acceleration by Design, discussed how marketing has flipped upside-down in this post-pandemic era. She spoke at the Bowie Business Boost part 3. (Photo by Barbara Green)
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