The first president’s award goes to an individual who worked for the MTA in many capacities. During her time with the MTA, she served as the MTA Magazine Editor, Treasurer, and Webpage Editor for many years. She spent countless hours working behind the scenes on the MTA’s official publication. She did a great job ensuring our officers and directors got their reports in on time while ensuring the magazine was informative. Pictures were always welcome from members, which were put in the magazine. She added more color to the magazine and added things like the beginner’s page and other features to make the magazine something the members would enjoy reading. When she wasn’t working on the magazine, she kept the MTA’s webpage up to date by adding information about upcoming trapper education classes, the convention, and winter meeting, and any other information deemed necessary to the members of the MTA. She updated the website, adding features and moving the MTA into the technology age. While doing all of this, she managed to also keep the books for the MTA for a period of time and then, after stepping down, come back on when the MTA needed her to.

Throughout her time working for the MTA, She was always there to greet you with a smile at MTA events and help answer any questions about the magazine, website, or finances. She served with dedication to the MTA and was proud to represent trappers, traps, and trapping. She took great pride in putting a good magazine and always wanted to ensure the information in the magazine and website was accurate and up to date. She did a great job managing the accounts of the MTA and making sure the bills got paid. I am grateful for her dedication and appreciate all that she did for the MTA during the time she served.
I am pleased to present this President’s award to Tricia Coons for her years of service and dedication to the Minnesota Trappers Association.

The next President’s award goes to an individual who has been involved with the MTA for several years. He has served as a district co-director and also as a district director. Along with this, he has been actively involved in trapper education and has developed and built a successful youth program known as the Beginning Trappers Corner, which the MTA can be proud of. He represents his district and always keeps the trapper’s best interest at heart. He has taken on the duties of handling all of the demos for the MTA at its annual convention and has built a youth demo program for new and young trappers to take in.  Along with this, he served on the finance committee and was instrumental in helping develop the MTA’s first annual budget to help guide the MTA financially throughout the fiscal year.

His dedication is apparent, and he always approaches things with a calm demeanor and is not afraid to speak up in support of different topics or issues that come before the MTA. When he is not representing the MTA, he is out successfully trapping canines with the same dedication he has when representing the MTA.
I am pleased to present this President’s Award to District 7 Director Brian Fischer.

The next President’s award goes to a gentleman who has been associated with the MTA for many years. His dedication to the organization and the time given cannot be put into words. He first got started with the MTA in 1997. Since twenty-one years ago, he has been a constant volunteer in the organization. Never one to be in the spotlight, his work behind the scenes for the MTA has been tremendous. He was one of the early donors to the Tanned Fur Project, giving Tim Caven the first donation to the program after Tim took the reins in 1997. At that time, he agreed to help with processing the fur for the project. Since then, he has single-handedly processed thousands of skins for the MTA and the Tanned Fur project. He never once asked the MTA to pay him for these services. Mind you; he did all of this work in addition to doing the work for his own fur processing business he had that helped pay the bills. During these years, he also served as a co-director for district 5 and provided his place as a meeting place for District 5 meetings and functions at different times. He and his family have attended many MTA conventions over the years, and I know many trappers have purchased trap tags from him for their equipment.
I am pleased to present this President’s Award to Mark Melby of District 5.

This final award is going to a family that embodies what it is to be a trapping family. From Dad and Mom to the kids, they somehow participate in the trapping community. Dad and the kids have been running trap lines for beaver, muskrats, fisher, marten, coyotes, and bobcats for many years. They enjoy spending time afield trapping together. The whole family partakes in different forms of hunting, from deer to bear and waterfowl. Every year this family makes the pilgrimage to the MTA convention, and you can always see them together near their camper, entertaining guests or cooking some good food on the grill. Often in the evening, a crowd will gather at their campsite to share stories or visit about different topics.

When they are not out in the woods or at the convention, they are working hard to support and represent the MTA. They organized and put on the wild game feeds at the convention, spoke to local school students about trapping, helped at the winter meetings, and were always around to help when called upon. Both dad and mom serve in capacities in the MTA, with one chairing the legal defense fund banquet committee and the other taking on the duties of the treasurer. Their two daughters also serve as volunteers for the MTA, wherever they can jump in and help out. You can see they enjoy what they do and, as a family, are very dedicated to trapping and the MTA. They embody what it is to be a trapping family, and I am proud of what they accomplish on behalf of trappers, traps, and trapping.
I am proud to present this year’s MTA Trapper Family award to the Dale Jindra family.