Full Of Courage

by SGW Leland Sockey

Full of courage with a strong spirit, and full of life would be how I would describe Marissa McCullar. Marissa is a pretty, slightly shy, fourteen year old girl with a bright smile, and a strong desire to go deer hunting.

During the first week of November, I was contacted by Virginia Cox of Stigler, about getting her granddaughter, Marissa McCullar of Ozark, AR, enrolled in our hunter education class, because Marissa wanted to go deer hunting with her grandfather, Robert Cox, during the upcoming deer gun season. This was a typical request for all Oklahoma Game Wardens during this time of the year. But, this request had a twist.

During the school spring break of 2004, Marissa found a cyst on her back. Her parents, Boyd and Terri McCullar, took her to see a doctor about the problem. The cyst was later diagnosed as Ewing Sarcoma, a cancer that affects mainly young adults age 10 to 20 years of age.
This type of cancer affects the soft tissue and can continue into the bone, and can be deadly if not treated. In Marissa's case the tissue containing the cyst was surgically removed. Her course of treatment consists of chemotherapy over a period of 46 weeks. This is a total of 14 treatments, of which she has already completed seven treatments.

About every two and a half weeks Marissa goes into the Little Rock Children's Hospital in Little Rock, AR. She stays in the hospital from three to six days, depending on her blood count level. She has had two blood transfusions to help improve her blood count level.

Even after the hospital stay, Marissa has to stay in bed a few days until she regains her appetite and some of her strength. Then the treatment cycle starts again. Chemotherapy has many drawbacks that come with its healing power. Some are nausea and vomiting, constant fatigue, pain, hair loss, anemia, and possible infections due to a low natural body immune system.

This means staying away from people with illnesses such as colds, flu, measles, and chicken pox. It is better to avoid crowds of people as much as possible and try to stay as healthy as you can during chemo treatments. With this information in mind, I enrolled Marissa into a current hunter education class, and I made plans to basically home school her. She was to complete the internet version of the home study program and I would furnish the other part of the class and let her take the written test portion when she came to visit her grandparents in Stigler.

In talking to Marissa's parents and grandparents I learned that Marissa's life was very busy before cancer slowed her down. Marissa's hobbies started at age 4 with YMCA basketball in Weatherford, OK. She also enjoyed riding ATVs, riding horses, playing Jr. High Basketball, and ran the 220 and 440 yard sprints and relays in track.

And, just recently Marissa's best friend, Breanna Graham of Ozark, Arkansas, had been telling her of shooting, target practices, and the sharing of hunting stories and pictures of the hunting heritage of her family. This lit a spark for Marissa to go hunting with her grandfather, Robert Cox, also known as Paw Paw.

Living in Ozark, AR required that Marissa would have to purchase a $202.00 non-resident deer license in order to go hunting.

To try to help Marissa reach her goal, I contacted Game Warden, Brady May, district representative for the Oklahoma State Game Warden Association (OSGWA), to help pay for the non resident license. He contacted the other representatives, and they voted to buy her deer license. And I got the pleasure of presenting the $202.00 check to Marissa's grandfather.
On Wednesday and Thursday, November 24th and 25th, Marissa McCullar got her wish to go deer hunting with her Paw Paw.

The two went deer hunting on the Canadian River, north of Stigler, on the Ward Ranch.
On Wednesday morning the weather was cold and windy, but Marissa got to shoot at a small buck. She missed the buck, and winged a tree limb instead. She said that she got nervous and was shaking all over when the deer arrived near their ground blind.

On Thursday morning, they saw an 8 or 9 point buck, but the deer wouldn't cooperate, and it did not present a good shot, before he walked off. Marissa was hunting with her grandfather's 1882 Winchester model 94, with Hex Barrel, 30 caliber rifle. The two took plenty of pictures. They talked a lot, and got to spend quality time together while sitting in their ground blind.
In this Game Warden's prospective I think a new deer hunter was born and a new family hunting tradition will be carried on.

On Friday, November 26th, Marissa was back in the hospital for the next chemo treatment. She did not feel up to hunting after her treatment, and missed the rest of the deer gun season.