By John McAdams via wideopenspaces.com
Last Saturday was prom night for the students at Kotzebue Middle High School in Alaska. However, it was also an opportunity for 15-year-old Cassidy Kramer to bag her first grizzly bear. Cassidy headed out on her grizzly bear hunt along the Noatak River Saturday morning with her father and brother. It didn’t take them long to find bears, though most of them were sows with cubs. They managed to find a legal bear after a few more hours of hunting. With just two shots from her rifle, Cassidy had bagged her first grizzly bear . . .
After shooting the bear, the Kramer family quickly set about skinning and dressing the bear. They had to hurry to make it back home in time for her to make it to prom.
According to Lance Kramer, Cassidy’s father:
We had to get back fast, because it was 5:40 and prom was at 8. We got back at 7 and she went upstairs and took a quick shower and did her hair.
Fortunately, Cassidy arrived back home in time to change from her hunting clothes into a pink dress and make it to prom with her friends.
Don’t worry, even though she was in a hurry to make it to prom that day, the bear will not go to waste. Her father stated that, in accordance with Eskimo custom, Cassidy will give her first bear to someone who needs its meat and hide; in this case, her grandmother.
Corina Kramer, Cassidy’s mother, joked about Cassidy’s unusual prom day:
It was her first bear and it was her first prom.
Way to go, girl!