MUSKEGON, MI – The opening day of rifle season is a highlight for anyone who enjoys the great outdoors.

For Muskegon resident Jake Veltman, hunting season means even more after nearly losing his life in a car crash traveling to his hunting property.

The injuries he suffered in the accident kept him from hunting for a time. With the use of a special piece of equipment, Veltman is back hunting and, in his own words, is alive again.

Now 71 years old, Veltman can “listen to the birds and watch the squirrels” again. He can experience the joy of nature and the thrill of the hunt.

“It’s quite a pick-me-up,” he said. “I feel alive again. Hunting is something I love to do and I never thought I’d do again until they made it possible.

"I live from year to year, and when I couldn’t hunt a whole bunch of my life was gone. This gives me something to look forward to every year. I just can’t wait.”

The accident

The date was Nov. 17, 2005. Veltman was returning to his hunting property in Oceana County when the moment that changed his life forever occurred in a flash.

As Veltman approached the Wesco gas station near the corner of North Maple Island Road and East Skeels Road, his vehicle hit some "black" ice, causing him to lose control of his vehicle.

“A car coming at me hit me in the side,” Veltman said. “I heard the crash, heard the noise and, boom, it was lights out.”

When Veltman woke up, he was in a room at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital in Grand Rapids where he instantly knew something wasn’t quite right.

“I couldn’t move and everything was dead,” he said. “There was no pain.”

That’s because Veltman, who friends and family say was always active, was paralyzed from the neck down.

The accident changed Veltman’s life. Suddenly, he wasn’t able to walk, work, feed himself or do what he loved to do more than anything -- hunt.

Veltman, a passionate hunter who has bagged more than 35 deer, was not able to sit in a blind and enjoy nature’s beauty.

For four agonizing years, Veltman tried to adjust to life without the thrill of the hunt.

“I love being outdoors,” Veltman said. “It’s not just the hunt. I like to listen to the birds and watch the squirrels. I have fun even if I don’t get a deer. It’s still enjoyable being with Mother Nature.”

The Sip and Puff

That all changed on a normal day in 2009. Veltman, accompanied by his wife, Barbara, was enjoying a beer at the Duane E. Dewey AMVETS Post 1988 in Baldwin.

It was there that Veltman and his family learned of the special hunt for veterans with disabilities, hosted by Ruby Creek Tavern in Branch Township.

Its owner, Jerry Welcome, is one of the men responsible for getting a special law passed to allow veterans with disabilities to hunt during Michigan’s youth hunt weekend in September.

With some help from friends, Veltman was invited to the hunt. It was there he was introduced to the Sip and Puff, an apparatus developed by the company, Be Adaptive, which allows people with disabilities to shoot a gun with their mouth by simply blowing.

Veltman said he purchased his own Sip and Puff a year later for about $2,000 and, with the help of his wife, three children and three step-children, has been using it ever since.

Miraculously, hunting -- something Veltman thought was gone forever -- was possible again.

“It gives him something to talk about,” said Veltman’s sister Sally Rundquist. “It gives him something to look forward to and live for. It’s the highlight of his life. He was an avid fisherman and hunter. When he had his accident, it eliminated those things. The two weeks out of the year when he hunts is what he lives for.”

This past year, Veltman added two more deer to his total using his 8 mm Mauser and the Sip and Puff. He said he hopes to hunt during the traditional firearm deer hunting season, which opens Friday across Michigan.

Veltman, who has regained the ability to feed himself through hundreds of hours of physical therapy and exercise, added that he plans to donate his Sip and Puff to the veterans' special hunt when he can no longer participate.