Larry and Brenda Potterfield are angels for youth shooting sports. The founders of the shooting supply and outdoor-gear retail giant Midway USA in Columbia, Missouri. In February 2025, the Foundation paid its latest round of cash grants totaling $6.8 million to teams and organizations that applied between October and December.

Founded in 2008 by the Potterfields, the MidwayUSA Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public charity committed to sustaining and growing youth shooting sports by providing long-term funding to youth shooting teams through different types of cash grant programs.

Larry and Brenda Potterfield.

The MidwayUSA Foundation provides critical funding to state, regional and national organizations that support youth shooting. Depending on the individual programs under the foundation’s umbrella, grants can reach five percent of the foundation’s endowment balance The endowment model preserves the contribution available in perpetuity by encouraging the youth shooting groups to raise money on their own, with the foundation donating matching funds.

Through the Potterfield’s foundation model, 100 percent of the donation goes to the endowment of the donor’s choice. Since zero dollars are removed from the funding for operations and administration, the recipient programs can channel all the money into providing youngsters with the best possible opportunity for success.

One grant recipient is the USA Clay Target League. It’s comprised of nearly 50,000 registered athletes, 1,600-plus high school and college teams and approximately 950 coaches. The trap shooting program in particular has grown to over 1,000 high schools – the expansion partially funded through the MidwayUSA Foundation.

The Rio Salado Target Terminators and their remarkable fundraising achievements. With an endowment balance of $1,409,536, they have the power to request over $70,000 as their annual cash grant.

While these statistics are impressive, the MidwayUSA Foundation’s largess often gives young people who either avoid or can’t qualify for normal school sports an opportunity to participate in the non-traditional sport of shooting. Schools typically place emphasis ball-oriented team sports where many kids simply don’t fit in or show no interest. The shooting sports, however, don’t require a particular level of physical strength, speed or ability to sustain physical contact. The shooting sports gives these outliers a different path to learning focus, safety and discipline that often carries into their school studies and relationships with family and community. At the same time, the youth shooting sports helps these athletes get outdoors more often.

For special-needs kids, the youth shooting sports lets them enjoy team comradery and an opportunity to achieve success and recognition that may otherwise elude them. Disciplines such as air guns and trap and pistol shooting empower wheelchair-bound athletes to compete in paraplegic shooting competitions even up to the Olympics.

Regardless of their physical abilities, the shooting sports ignites kids with a sense of self-actualization that many of the them might not have experienced.

While we can take the 1,000-foot view of the Potterfield’s contributions, on the ground they are dramatically improving the lives of individuals by making youth shooting sports more attractive, affordable and accessible – in effect bringing each kid as close as possible to unrealized potential.

Kenzie Kring

Now 18, Kenzie Kring of Denver, Colorado explained that competitive air-rifle shooting has “made me a very focused person. It helped me focus more on my schoolwork and other things in life, and it helped me a lot with time management, like trying to make plans around matches and staying in touch with friends outside of shooting.”

Her father, Randy, said that she has a lot of colleges recruiting her, offering the Kring family some financial relief. Rifle shooting is an NCAA sport, and the colleges have a rifle team and recruiting for that.

In 2024, Kenzie won a silver medal the USA Shooting National Championships Women’s Air Rifle Overall Category, Women’s Air Rifle Overall silver for under 21 and set a junior qualification score national record for under 18.

Looking beyond college, Kenzie said she aspires to be fighter pilot.

From his hometown of Hillsborough, North Carolina, Jack Rogers told us that the National 4-H Shooting Sports Program brought him “out of my shell. I used to be extremely shy. Now I’m running the club and helping new clubs. I’m helping other shy kids – it’s life skills, teaching people to be polite, speak properly, kind of old school.”

Some members of Alaska’s Borealis Bullseyes.

Even as far north as Anchorage, Alaska, the Midway USA’s Foundation has let the mostly female Borealis Bullseyes club flourish into a more adept group. Its members, who compete in rifle and shooting, vary in age from 9 through 20.

“The money we received from the MidwayUSA Foundation enabled us to get insurance required by the Anchorage school district of several thousand per year and pay for rental of space in the summer when rates go up exponentially,” said Marshel Reed, President Borealis Bullseyes Shooting Club, Inc. “We were able to pay for travel for regional and national matches, and new electronic targets. Here in Alaska, the foundation helped us get higher grade volunteers because we have no paid staff.”

The Borealis Bullseyes is affiliated with the Alaska Rifle Club, Civilian Marksmanship Program, the National Rifle Association, USA Shooting, the American Legion plus other organizations that sponsor state and national championship matches for Junior Olympic hopefuls.

But perhaps most importantly, the Borealis Bullseyes is a venue for growth and development. While shooting is ostensibly the sport, its purpose is to “expand, enhance, and perpetuate youth shooting sports activities to help young people improve their confidence, discipline, and leadership skills through shooting sports education.” The club strives to teach the value of honesty, respect for others, integrity, teamwork and stewardship.

In Solon, Iowa, the Solon Spartan Trapshooting Club “depends on the grant to help in many ways,” according to Sherri Shima, a team representative. “This grant helps pay for the entry fees for all shoots, targets for practices and shoots, and the cost required for coaches to take courses to remain certified.”

The face of determination from a member of the Solon Spartan Trapshooting Club.

Rachel Augustine, who is affiliated with the of Missouri 4-H Foundation, said that “the grants we receive from the MidwayUSA Foundation play a crucial role in the success of Missouri 4-H shooting sports. They help us provide essential funding for equipment, volunteer training, and state and national contests, as well as events. Through 4-H shooting sports, youth gain confidence, leadership, and responsibility, while developing a lifelong appreciation for shooting, hunting, and the outdoors.”

Since nearly all of the youth shooting clubs and organizations rely on volunteers, the MidwayUSA Foundation provides a special grant program to develop coaches who can assist youth shooters. Those funds give coaches basic or advanced-level certifications including skills training, shooting clinics, train-the-trainer, or other coach training.

The MidwayUSA Foundation has four categories of funding. For example, a fundamental need of a shooting team is having a place to shoot. The foundation funds create an opportunity for existing ranges to make improvements and expansions for more youth-oriented shooting activities.

Other funding programs include:

Endowment funding: They manage endowment accounts that generate annual grants for youth shooting teams and organizations.
Team funding program: Schools and organizations can establish endowment accounts that grow through donations and investment returns.
Matching programs: The Foundation often provides matching funds to enhance donations made to team endowment accounts.
Grant distribution: Teams receive annual grants based on a percentage of their endowment account balance to help fund equipment, ammunition, travel, and competition expenses

Ultimately, the philanthropic programs emphasize the same hard work and determination as the Potterfield’s own enormous up-by-the-bootstraps groundbreaking achievements.

Michigan’s Pistol Prodigies Pistol Club has received grants from the MidwayUSA Foundation.

Larry and Brenda Potterfield started Midway USA in 1975 from their home. They initially sold reloading supplies and shooting accessories through mail-order catalogs. That nascent business adhered to the their fundamental philosophy of delivering high-quality, competitively priced products and exceptional customer service. By the 1990s, the Potterfields introduced one of the first e-commerce websites for firearms retail. In 2012, MidwayUSA was named one of the “Best Places to Work in Missouri.” Come 2024, company reported an annual revenue of $122.5 million by serving hundreds of thousands of customers each year. That’s the same year MidwayUSA revealed plans for its “500-year campus.” It will be a state-of-the-art, two-story, 61,000-square-foot facility that accommodates just over 200 employees across six departments.

Under Larry’s leadership, MidwayUSA received the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 2009, 2015 and 2021.

Larry and Brenda Potterfield have built a legacy that spans business success, Second Amendment engagement, conservation efforts and support for shooting sports – making them influential figures in the outdoor and firearms industries that improves the lives of America’s kids.

Irwin Greenstein is the Publisher of Young Awesome Hunter and Shotgun Life. Visit their Facebook pages at https://tinyurl.com/3wrtm25t and https://tinyurl.com/32f6muwp

Helpful resources:

The website for the MidwayUSA Foundation

Midway USA web site