MOUNT VERNON — Since Mike Gates was blinded in a hunting accident 13 years ago, he has shot 11 deer, slain six turkeys and smashed a few stereotypes about the sight-impaired along the way. Now, the Rockcastle County man is building an 8oo-acre camp where kids with blindness and other disabilities will be able to swim, fish, go horseback. riding — and hunt, with an adult guide. A barn with living quarters for staff is already finished. Two ponds have been dug, 6 miles of trails have been completed, and hunting stands are in place. A hilltop cabin, big enough to hold 6o campers, is being built. Gates says the camp will be unique. “We’re the only blind hunting camp in the world,” he says. Christ’s Outreach for the Blind Inc., the non-profit group that Gates founded, hopes to start welcoming campers in fall 2003. Since Feb. 2000, Christ’s Outreach has received half a million dollars in cash donations.

Hundreds of volunteers from across the country have come here to paint walls, pound nails and pull weeds. Businesses have donated food, furniture and building supplies. The group needs to raise an other $500,000 before the camp opens, Gates said, but he has faith the money will materialize. “Where God guides, God provides,” he says. “We’ve struggled, but we don’t believe the kingdom of God is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy:”

Blindness — then a vision

Gates’ faith was tested Jan. 14, 1989, the day a hunting buddy accidentally shot him in the face while they were rabbit hunting in Michigan. “I got hit with 246 pieces of lead from the chin up,” he said. Doctors picked 40 pieces of lead out of his tongue and operated on him for 27 straight hours. Later, plastic surgeons fixed up his face, but they couldn’t do anything about his severed optic nerves. “I can’t see a lick,” he says. Gates, who had worked for his dad's construction business before the accident, receives a disability check of $763 a month. “When I got shot, I got five years off of work, and I hated every minute of it,” he says. He and his wife, Lori, eventually attended Bible school in California and then opened a small business in Florida. He was able to fish and hunt with help from sighted outdoorsmen, but he remained restless. I found myself it on my back porch one day totally and absolutely bored, and then I started dreaming about teaching blind kids to do this kind of stuff,” he says. Gates chose Rockcastle County as the site for his camp because the land was beautiful and a lot cheaper than anything he could find in his home state. He says he paid about $250,000 for the 800-acre site, which is about 3 miles east of Interstate 75.

Opening eyes and doors

Some people had doubts about Gates when he moved here in the late 1990s. Rumors spread that the new folks were buying up land so they could open a nudist colony. But Gates went door to door across Rockcastle County, telling residents about his dream and passing out 37,800 gallons of Eagle Foods lemonade concentrate, which had been donated to the camp. “Once I started doing the things everyone said I couldn’t do, I realized the sky’s the limit,” he says. He even learned to bow hunt for deer on his own. Now, local residents are also working to make Gates’ dream a reality. “It’s just a wonderful, wonderful place,” says John MacLean, a volunteer coordinator for the Coalition for Appalachian Ministry. MacLean has lined up about 200 volunteers to help Gates this year. Those volunteers have donated 200 weeks of labor and about $35,000. The volunteers have had an “absolutely fabulous” time working with Gates. “They’ve had a wonderful experience, they’ve felt needed and they’ve done a lot of work,” MacLean said. Mount Vernon First Baptist Church pastor Eddie Nation says Gates is an extraordinary man with sharp spiritual in sight. “He sees more than most. I would say the Lord has opened the eyes of his heart,” Nation says. Gates says he hopes the camp will inspire young people with disabilities to take risks and accept challenges. “I hope it helps people take a second look at their life,” he says, “and gets them off the couch and doing something constructive.”

Reach Frank Lockwood at 231-3211; 1-800-950-6397, Ext. 3211; or flockwood@herald-leader.com.

To reach Christ’s Outreach for the Blind, call 1-888-254- 6319 or write PO Box 3192, Mount Vernon, Ky. 40456