Mike Cranford is defined by public service. For 15 years he worked as the Foreman City Recorder/Treasurer. He has served as Little River County Judge for the past five years. And, since 2004, he has, with friends and family, facilitated hunting trips for almost 300 disabled and terminally ill hunters through their nonprofit organization, Southern Sportsmen Foundation.

*On January 1, 2015, Mike was sworn in as Little River County Judge by Circuit Judge Tom Cooper.*

Mike had a very typical Arkansan childhood; he grew up hunting, fishing and otherwise spending time outdoors. He was good with his hands. After graduating from high school, he enrolled at Southern Arkansas University, but it wasn’t for him; he returned home and joined the workforce as an auto mechanic.

In August 1988, everything changed for Mike, who was then 23. He was enjoying an end-of-summer celebration with his friends—partying on the Red River and cooking out—when he experienced a spinal cord injury while swimming.

After five months of rehabilitation, Mike had to learn to navigate the world as a paraplegic. “In 1989, there weren’t a lot of opportunities for people with spinal cord injuries,” he said. “I used to get a lot of funny looks at Central Mall and places like that because you didn’t see a lot of people out in wheelchairs. But my parents raised me up with the attitude that you can sit around and watch the world go by, or you can be a part of the world—and I chose to be a part of the world.”

*Mike and his fellow county judges visiting the White House.*

This philosophy may have gotten Mike out of the house, but it didn’t get him back into the deer blind. “I tried to hunt when I returned from rehab, but there wasn’t much adaptive equipment available,” he said. “Also, I wasn’t in the right frame of mind, maybe, to come up with what I needed to go hunting again and be successful.” It would be a decade before he tried again.

*Mike with Arkansas Secretary of Agriculture Wes Ward and State Rep. DeAnn Vaught during a visit from Gov. Asa Hutchinson.*

Though Mike could no longer be an auto mechanic, he returned to the Chevrolet store where he’d worked previously and was hired as the parts manager, a job he likely wouldn’t have pursued had he still been physically able to be a mechanic.

In 1994, when Foreman alumnus Tracy Lawrence was in town for a homecoming event, Mike asked if he would be interested in launching a scholarship. Lawrence agreed to perform annually in Foreman to fund the scholarship. Mike was the founding chair of the event. Seeing the success of his efforts planted an idea. “I realized that I had a little skill in management, in putting things together, in making things happen,” he explained. “It led me to thinking I might one day get into public service.”

A few years later, in 2000, Mike became city recorder/treasurer. “The day I took office, I had the intention of running for county judge someday; I felt like that was my destiny,” he said.

Around the same time, Mike felt the desire to go hunting again. He and his friends began kicking around ideas about how to make it happen. Together, they designed and built a piece of adaptive equipment that would allow Mike to operate a gun again. “That device still serves me today,” he said.

In 2003, he was on a hunting trip in Kansas, led by a well-intended group of people who “just didn’t know a lot about giving someone in a wheelchair the best opportunity to try to take a deer,” Mike explained. “They didn’t understand the dynamics—you need a level ground, you need a good firm area to sit so you can turn your chair left or right in case the animal comes out one side or the other . . . There are a lot of nuances you don’t realize unless you’ve done it before.”

On the drive home, Mike had an idea: what if he and his people were to lead hunting trips for people with mobility impairments? “I said to my dad, ‘Who knows more about taking people in wheelchairs hunting than we do?’”

*While deer hunting in Oklahoma in 2010, Mike bagged this 10-point buck.*

The following year, they facilitated their first trip, serving six hunters. Nobody was setting out to do anything large-scale; on the contrary, the entire model was—and largely still is—based on how Mike himself had gotten back in the blind. Through community, individualization, and ingenuity, the team (which would later become the registered nonprofit Southern Sportsmen Foundation) sought to introduce or reintroduce people to hunting and the joys of nature.

Every aspect of each hunting trip is catered to the needs of the hunters, to whom Mike refers as “our guests.” SSF pays for everything but hunters’ travel: equipment, out-of-state licenses, processing of animals, food, lodging. Only a small minority of these guests are local; the rest hail from all over the United States.

Each hunter is equipped with whatever adaptive gear necessary, often built specifically for the individual. “We can build just about anything you need,” Mike said. The team has traveled as far as Springdale, Arkansas, to evaluate a hunter for a device—“and I wouldn’t mind going farther,” Mike said. “We’ll do whatever it takes. That’s what we’re here for.” All blinds are wheelchair accessible, because “if they fit a wheelchair hunter, most anybody can use them.”

In 2006, Mike ran for his fated job of county judge—and lost, with 47 percent of the vote. Undeterred, he ran again in 2014 and won. He is soon embarking on his sixth year in the position.

As the new decade dawns, Mike’s goals are largely unchanged: to serve the public with innovation, connection, and consistency. He is driven by a desire to help others experience all they can while they can.

“Not everybody’s a hunter, but for those who are or ever have been, there’s a lot of satisfaction in being outdoors, seeing the sun come up or down,” he said. “As much as I love to do it, I’d hate for somebody to lose 10 years like I did.”

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Driven by a Desire to Assist Others