In celebration of the founding values that have made America the light of the world, the NRA’s America’s 1st Freedom is starting an A1F Freedom Award for a person (or team) who has distinguished themselves as a standout defender of our Second Amendment freedom in business, politics or American culture.
There is no person or team more deserving of this first annual award than Larry and Brenda Potterfield, founders of MidwayUSA. The Potterfields built MidwayUSA from a gun store in Missouri back in the 1970s to the national company it is today. Along the way, the Potterfields came up with the ideas that grew into The NRA Round-Up Program and Friends of NRA—two programs that have together raised hundreds of millions of dollars to cement and grow our Second Amendment freedom.
Just as incredibly, to help youth shooting sports, they created the MidwayUSA Foundation, which, as of the end of 2023, had given over $64 million in grants to 2,730 youth shooting teams.
“My favorite story is a mother who came to me in Marengo, Ohio, and said that her son hated high school,” said Brenda in a video interview with A1F. “He wasn’t tall enough to be a basketball player. He wasn’t heavy enough to be a football player. He didn’t fit in and he found the shooting team and that team became his family. And he started shooting and shooting well, and he had a group that he could meet with at lunch and that he could practice with and a coach who supported him. And this individual grew to love going to school. Not only did we help that team, but we helped that individual grow and become more satisfied in his life.”
This story, with so many different people, has been repeated again and again thanks to the leadership and generosity of Larry and Brenda Potterfield.
