Posted Nov. 3, 2015 at 7:11 PM Updated at 9:50 PM

Nine soldiers and veterans dealing with external and internal wounds from their military service were outfitted with free outdoors clothing and related gear Tuesday in Springfield as they began a hunting trip focused more on goodwill than game.

“Killing a deer or catching a fish is a tiny part of what we do,” said Matt Graden, a founder of HOOAH Deer Hunt for Heroes, which arranged Tuesday’s shopping trip to Scheels. “It’s about spending our time and showing our gratitude.”

The McLean County-based nonprofit, which formed in 2012 and is operated entirely by volunteers, provides outdoor activities and other all-expense-paid social events for wounded veterans to help them rehabilitate mentally and physically. The group can be reached at hooahdeerhuntforheroes.com.

The Scheels trip marked the first time a large corporate donor has partnered with HOOAH, which stands for Healing Outside of a Hospital.

The group works with the U.S. Army and other military organizations to identify wounded active-duty soldiers and veterans throughout the country who might benefit from the non-alcoholic outdoor trips HOOAH sets up in rural Illinois.

Six people — the group refers to them as “heroes” — took part in 2013, said Graden, 42, a Stanford resident and Illinois Air National Guard veteran.

That total increased in 2014 to 47 men and women who participated in hunting and fishing trips in McLean and Jefferson counties, and the group is on track to serve about the same number this year, Graden said. The average age of participants is 30, he said.

After the shopping trip, the nine heroes were scheduled to spend Wednesday pheasant hunting and shooting clay pigeons at a camp in McLean County, and then hunt deer in the same area Thursday through Sunday. A closing banquet is scheduled for Sunday at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Bloomington.

‘Awesome’ impact

The outing to Scheels began with the nine heroes, all men, driving to the store on Springfield’s south side as part of a caravan that included police vehicles, a fire truck and Springfield-area members of the Patriot Guard.

One of the heroes walked with a cane. One had a leg brace. Several had limbs missing and prostheses in their place. For others, the injuries weren’t obvious.

Once inside Scheels, the men were greeted by Gov. Bruce Rauner, who wore camouflage clothing and said he had been duck hunting that morning in Calhoun County. Rauer shook each man’s hand and talked with each one for a few minutes.

The men later tried on the hunting clothing that Sheels donated. Sheels officials wouldn’t say how much the store’s donation was worth, but Tom Huffington, 45, another founder of HOOAH, said the group funded similar shopping trips for soldiers on its own in the past. The typical cost to outfit each person is at least $400 or $500, he said.