Dennis Anderson: Caitlin Clark isn't the only Iowa woman riding a success streak

Friends hadn't invited her to give hunting a try. Nor did any friends join her.

"I decided to take the bull by the horns and do it myself," she said. "I was tired of relying on other people to take me."

After graduating with a degree in animal science and moving to Des Moines, Stone learned about a similar mentored hunting program organized specifically for women sponsored by the Northern Polk Pheasants Forever (PF) Chapter.

"We know there are young women who move to Des Moines for their first job after college," said Kirk Eno of Des Moines, a past president of the Northern Polk chapter. "Some of those women come to the mentored hunts we offer, and some of the women are older. We shoot trap and take them to a hunting preserve to show them what pheasants and pheasant hunting are all about. If they like it, they can come back a couple weeks later for a more advanced program."

The Northern Polk PF chapter's most recent Des Moines banquet drew 500 people and netted more than $100,000 for land purchases and habitat development, as well as hunting and conservation programs.

"Pheasants hunting goes back a lot of generations in Iowa," Eno said. "There's a lot of interest, not only in our banquet and programs, but in our annual golf fundraiser, which this year drew 144 golfers. At it, we auctioned two tickets to an Iowa women's basketball game, which was a big hit."

A veteran of both Northern Polk PF mentored hunts, Stone is now a chapter volunteer.

"As it turns out, there are a lot of different kinds of people involved in hunting, and who want to get involved in hunting, than I thought there would be," she said. "It's not just older white males, but younger people and people of different sexual persuasions. And vegans. At our last women's hunt we even had a vegetarian. People are opening their minds to the benefits of harvesting their own food."

Stone was exposed to turkey, duck and deer hunting through the NWTF-mentored hunting program. But she likes pheasant hunting best, she said, because being outdoors with other people is enjoyable "and because when you hunt pheasants you get to hike and move and you don't have to be silent," as in deer and turkey hunting.

Stone's next project is helping Northern Polk and other Iowa PF chapters start a Women on the Wing Pheasants Forever chapter. Designed to attract women who are interested in sustainable food harvesting, land and water stewardship, and hunting, 13 Women on the Wing PF and Quail Forever (PF's companion organization) chapters can be found in 10 states, including Minnesota.

"We'll open the chapter to all Iowa women who are interested," Stone said.

Meanwhile, to ensure she is never alone while trying to score a pheasant — the equivalent, after a fashion, of Caitlin Clark having someone to pass to on a fast break — Stone now owns a 2-year-old cocker spaniel named Jimmy.

And that brother who wouldn't take her hunting as a young girl?

He still lives in Illinois.

"Now," she said, "he wants to come to Iowa to hunt with me."