Sanctuary deer preserve developer to speak at sportsmen’s banquet

REGION – Skipper Bettis, developer of Michigan's well-known Sanctuary deer preserve, will be the featured speaker at this year's annual Outdoor Sportsmen's Banquet on Saturday, March 3.

Growing up in the small Texas town of Winnie, Bettis roamed the swamps and rice fields of east Texas hunting small game, ducks and geese. At 19, he was taken on his first whitetail hunt and caught the big game hunting fever.

In 1975, Bettis’ dreams of the wild north began to materialize as he traveled to the Northwest Territories to become a guide/outfitter, then later relocated to Michigan and began developing the Sanctuary near Stanwood in 1986, creating one of the best-known trophy whitetail deer preserves in the world.

In the 1990s, the avid sportsman began to take northern whitetails to a new level with advanced nutrition, genetics, age and innovative management techniques, combining his 30 years of experience in game management with Dr. James Kroll, known as "Dr. Deer" to develop the latest in whitetail nutrition technology.

Through his love of hunting Bettis realized there were those who could only dream of the chance to have a barrier-free hunt because of life obstacles that prevented them from enjoying the sport of hunting. In response, he developed Quest Ministries, a nonprofit organization which offers special trophy game hunts for the disabled.

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