McGREGOR — Toward the end of his life, Chuck Evancevich began feeling like a burden on society.

Brenda Evancevich saw her husband’s struggles as an Air Force veteran confined to a wheelchair due to primary progressive multiple sclerosis and neurologic Lyme disease. Once a great athlete recruited by professional sports teams, Chuck eventually had to deal with a life of limits that meant some of his favorite pastimes — like range shooting — became inaccessible.

“He always felt like he was kind of a burden on society,” Brenda Evancevich said Saturday, June 15. “And he always felt like he was just watching life pass him by.”

Chuck died in 2020, but his legacy lives on at Forgotten Heroes Ranges and Retreat.

His story is one of the backbones of a new handicap-accessible outdoor shooting range, campground, veterans center and community center in McGregor. Still in the construction phase, Forgotten Heroes Ranges and Retreat plans to help disabled veterans and others take part in activities that might not otherwise be feasible. It’s also a way to ensure those who dedicated their lives to serving their country are not forgotten.

Bret Sample, an Army veteran and close friend of the Evanceviches, made it his mission to create such a place for veterans and handicapped outdoor enthusiasts alike. Sample is now the executive director/president of Forgotten Heroes Ranges and Retreat, while Brenda Evancevich serves as operations director, vice president and secretary.

Vehicles lined the road out to the facility June 15 to celebrate the work that had been done thus far and raise a special American flag. Congressman Pete Stauber presented a flag flown over the United States Capitol on D-Day. The same banner now waves above Forgotten Heroes Ranges and Retreat.

“It is such an honor to be here with all of you, celebrating the men and women who have given it all — the disabled men and women who have fought for this country, their families, their friends,” Stauber said. “This is what America’s all about — the passion.”

He thanked Sample and all the volunteers who continue to work on the project and make the facility a reality.

“This will be a place for marksmanship and mentorship,” Stauber said. “Our veterans are going to have a safe place — a safe and secure place — to share their stories, to shoot their bow and arrow, to shoot their firearms, for enjoyment. A facility that was specifically built for them — our heroes — that served this nation with honor and integrity. This is going to be a lasting range long after many of us are gone.”

Representatives from the offices of U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith shared words on behalf of the senators. Rachel Loeffler-Kemp, regional outreach director with Klobuchar’s office, read a letter from the senator, praising the nation’s veterans.

“Our service members deserve our consistent, unwavering support,” Loeffler-Kemp read. “There’s no expiration to the benefits that they’ve earned, no limits to the honor they are due and no time when we are not indebted to them.”Klobuchar’s letter thanked everyone in attendance for honoring veterans and service members with their work.

“You’re all part of a proud tradition of men and women in our state who have served with honor, bravery, dignity and humility,” the letter read.

Orion DiFranco represented Smith’s office, thanking the volunteers and those who donated to the project for their blood, sweat and tears over the past several years.

“This is an incredible project,” DiFranco said. “This is what it’s all about. It’s Americans working together to try and do something that’s going to benefit men and women who have served our country and — more broadly — community members who, because of disability or whatever the case might be, have not been able to get out and recreate outdoors and exercise their Second Amendment rights the way that they used to or the way that they’d like to.”

He said Forgotten Heroes has an honorable mission and congratulated those gathered, on behalf of Smith, for the milestone flag-raising and all that is sure to come in the future.

A facility for all

The land on which the range and retreat is to be constructed was once an illegal dump. When cleaning up the property, Sample said volunteers removed 250 appliances, 15.5 tons of scrap metal and 12 dumpsters worth of garbage. They racked up over 13,000 volunteer hours, a fact Sample got choked up about during his speech, thinking about all the help he’s received along the way.

Dan Guida is the construction director on the project and a senior master sergeant with the 934th Airlift Wing, the only Air Force Reserve unit in Minnesota. Known in the military community as the “Global Vikings,” Guida’s unit has been involved in the construction on the property thus far, using the area for training purposes. The military’s Innovative Readiness Training program provides real-world training opportunities for service members, preparing them for war-time missions while helping out communities that wouldn’t otherwise have the resources to complete projects on their own.

Forgotten Heroes Ranges and Retreat is a perfect example, and its proximity to the unit’s base at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport is a big perk.

“It’s huge for us to be able to get training in a manner that we don’t have to take 14 days out of a busy schedule, or seven days out of a busy schedule,” Guida said.

He pointed to the large hydroseeding berms, built up around the gun range for added safety measures, which members of the Airlift Wing built. They’re the same things that would be built to hide a tank behind in a desert combat zone. And the tree removal for the project is the same process that would have to happen in a jungle environment.

“So all these tasks, almost every single one of them, is exactly what we need,” Guida said.

The timeline for completion of Forgotten Heroes Ranges and Retreat is unknown at this point, dependent on funding, as the group is a nonprofit. Once built, there will be a veterans center open to area veterans, alongside a community center open to all. A campground will feature paths, ponds and a fire pit area for campers. Rifle, pistol and archery ranges will cap it all off.

And everything will be completely handicap accessible and free to use for not only disabled veterans but any disabled individuals along with their caretakers, families, law enforcement and first responders. Guida said the team worked with wheelchair users to determine the type of amenities needed for their comfort and accessibility.

Down the road, Brenda Evancevich said there are plans for handicap-accessible hunting, which was another of her husband’s passions.

Billed as a facility “in memory of one, in honor of all,” Forgotten Heroes Ranges and Retreat will serve as a memorial to Chuck Evancevich and a place of outdoor recreation for all, especially those who gave their all in service.

Keeping in mind the high suicide rate among veterans, Brenda Evancevich said Forgotten Heroes hopes also to put efforts toward veteran suicide prevention.

“If we can help one person, then that makes it all worth it,” she said.

Joining the cause

More information on Forgotten Heroes is available at forgottenheroesmn.org . The website allows for online donations and provides a printable donation form for those who would like to donate via check. Checks should be made payable to Forgotten Heroes Ranges and Retreat and can be mailed to: Forgotten Heroes Ranges & Retreat, P. O. Box 405, McGregor, MN 55760. All donations are tax deductible.

Those interested in volunteering with the nonprofit can call or text 218-851-0969.

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