Christina Holden had a life-changing experience when she met some disabled veterans at Maryland’s Grand National Waterfowl Hunt in 2006. As a result of that meeting, she subsequently went to Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington DC and learned more about wounded veterans and their possible interest in hunting.

Now, three years later, the Maryland resident has been on more than 20 hunts with disabled veterans, from Alaska to Africa and many states in between. Most of those hunts were with Jim Zumbo as he filmed for his TV show on the Outdoor channel, Jim Zumbo Outdoors, but several were with her family on Maryland’s eastern shore, where she has taken war heroes on deer, dove, goose, and duck hunts.

Christina works for a state natural resource agency in her “real” job, and works with disabled veterans as a volunteer on her own time. She closed out last year’s hunting season in Colorado where she assisted a young marine who lost both legs to an IED explosion in Iraq. The young hero was able to move around in elk country while holding onto a handlebar affixed to a saddle, enabling him to ride on a mule, balance himself and get to the elk. Not only did he get a bull elk, but he traveled to Wyoming with Christina and Jim Zumbo and his camera crew and hunted antelope. In one of the few instances where she actually hunts while with injured veterans, she and the marine and Zumbo scored on big buck antelope. Christina has appeared on 14 episodes of Jim Zumbo Outdoors, proudly wearing Prois hunting attire during every shoot.

Christina is a volunteer for the Outdoor Recreational Heritage Fund which is a foundation within the Paralyzed Veterans of America.  This foundation focuses on raising money for outdoor sports, including hunting, and finances literally hundreds of hunts around the country for PVA members. www.pvaheritagefund.org

This year, Christina attended the SHOT show, the SCI convention, and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation convention. Her first hunt of 2009 was in April, where she assisted on a veteran’s turkey hunt in Kentucky with 12 disabled veterans vying to take the biggest bird. This event drew more than 100 people, and “her” soldier won the award for the biggest bird. Later she hunted the Black Hills, but the blizzards and gale force winds prevented her from scoring on a gobbler. In May, she participated in a gala hunt in Alaska where 20 disabled vets hunted black bears. When all the soldiers had scored (20 black bears were taken), she climbed into a tree stand with a black bear tag and was virtually held prisoner as a huge brown bear came into the bait and refused to leave. Unfortunately, she didn’t have a brown bear tag and was able to finally make a quick exodus when the huge bruin was distracted. “I came out of that tree so fast I’d have put a chimpanzee to shame,” Christina added.

Many hunts are on the docket for 2009, including veterans hunts for antelope in Wyoming, deer on Kodiak Island in Alaska, and several other hunts, but the one she’s most looking forward to is a Colorado hunt for youngsters between the ages of 12 and 17. Her outfitter friend, Dick Dodds, of Elkhorn Outfitters near Craig, has generously offered free big game hunts to children who have a parent in the military, either past or present. Dodds has given away hunts for bull elk, buck mule deer, and buck antelope. Each child had to write an essay on “What hunting means to me and my family.” Christina was one of the judges of the essay contest (every child was a winner, including two girls), so she and Zumbo will be hosting 17 youngsters on the big game hunts. “Just calling those kids on the phone and giving them the news that they’ve won the essay was an incredible thrill,” she said.

She’s currently working very hard to take country music superstar Miranda Lambert on a big game hunt in Colorado. Miranda has taken more than 20 deer with a bow, and is proud of hunting, refusing to keep in it in a closet as other celebrities do. Hunts with celebrities are always iffy with their ever-changing schedules, but this one has an excellent chance of coming off. Stay tuned.

Christina is a profound supporter of females in regard to hunting and shooting. While at work or during her travels, she continually carries the torch for women. She loves it when she is able to drive a point home with a nonhunter, and is especially delighted when she takes a woman on her first hunt.

The prestigious magazine, Maryland Life, will run a feature story about her this fall as a result of her taking the reporter on his first hunt. The article will chronicle her attitude about hunting, and especially women hunters.

Christina writes a regular column for Crosswinds Magazine, and, of course, always manages to throw in comments about women in the field. Of course. To those who know her, that’s no surprise.   

Tags: Prois Prois Hunting Apparel Prostaff Christina Holden Jim Zumbo

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