Jayden and Andrew both got hunts of a lifetime in Grant County
By Logan Bagett on Tuesday, October 7th, 2025 in Eastern/Southeast Oregon News More Top Stories
PRAIRIE CITY – Two young men got to participate in hunts of a lifetime in the upper John Day River Valley recently.
Jayden Wall of Georgia, and Andrew Soto of Arizona both have life-threatening illnesses or disabilities, and through the nonprofit “Hunt of a Lifetime” organization were able to harvest two six-point bull elk thanks to local landowners’ permission. The boys got around 30,000 deeded acres they were able to hunt on.
Hunt of a Lifetime’s website explains that the nonprofit organization has “…a mission to grant hunting & fishing dreams for children age 21 and under, who have been diagnosed with life threatening illnesses or life threatening disabilities.”
Locals Doug Emmel and Toby Gangler were recently on KJDY’s Coffee Time to talk about the two hunts, which both took place beginning September 15, 2025. Doug said he and Toby each took a hunter out:
“I took the first kid, Jayden, and his dad, and the cameraman the first day; and Toby took Andrew and his grandpa and the cameraman, and we just split up every day and took the boys hunting.
The kid from Arizona, Andrew, actually turned down a five-star elk hunt to come hunt with us. He wanted to stay in a wall tent and do the real thing, [so] we set him up with that!”
There was a crew of about 12 volunteers and support members to pull off the hunts.
Listen to the full hunting story for both young men in the podcast below:
