Well I am now 40 posts in on this Rokslide adventure, so I am hoping at least some of you accept that I am not a complete knucklehead and read about what I have been doing for kids. About 6 1/2 year ago, I decided we needed to do something for the youth in our area to get them more involved in the outdoors. I belonged to a national conservation organization (chapter president) and a local group. Somehow, I got both groups on board and 1 gentlemen in particular and I took the ball and ran with it. We started an event for kids to explore the outdoors that I was hoping to get 50 kids to. We got 542 that first year. We now get over 2,000 kids to this completely free event. It features over 40 activities for kids to actually do. Free tee shirts, lunch and prizes. Not a penny out of mom or dads pocket. We live on donations, but we won't take them that day. We are a community of 14,000 and a county of 30,000. If we can do it, anyone can do it. If anyone is interested in learning more, PM me and I would be happy to share everything I know.
This was going to be our biggest year yet, but Covid hit. So we had to cancel the event. But we had all of this momentum so we had to do something. We partnered with our local school district and have done a few things that I am pretty stoked about. First, we put trail cameras out behind 3 of the schools (the schools have woods behind them). The science teachers use the pictures both as a teaching tool and a reward for their classes. The kids love it. Why aren't there trail cams behind every school (assuming there is a place for them)??? What a great project for hook and bullet type sportsmen's clubs!
Next we put docks out on the ponds behind our middle school. Now science classes can take their own aquatic biology samples and learn about hydrology and water-based life right out the back door!
Then we tackled the biggest challenge. Access to or cost of gear is a hurdle that families must overcome in order to try a new outdoors activity. We have to remove that. We are starting an outdoor gear library. Kids and families can come and checkout outdoors gear (binoculars and birding books, cross country skiis, camping gear, GPS for geocaching, ice fishing equipment, etc.). We will be adding a lot more (yes, including hunting gear....but not firearms).
I am posting this in hopes that somewhere in the Rokslide world there is a group that wants to get kids into the outdoors, away from screens and on to the road that so many of us have taken. If so, I would be happy to share all that we have learned to help you with any of these initiatives.
We do have a website and youtube channel, but not sure if it is okay if I can post that or not, so I will leave that off.
This was going to be our biggest year yet, but Covid hit. So we had to cancel the event. But we had all of this momentum so we had to do something. We partnered with our local school district and have done a few things that I am pretty stoked about. First, we put trail cameras out behind 3 of the schools (the schools have woods behind them). The science teachers use the pictures both as a teaching tool and a reward for their classes. The kids love it. Why aren't there trail cams behind every school (assuming there is a place for them)??? What a great project for hook and bullet type sportsmen's clubs!
Next we put docks out on the ponds behind our middle school. Now science classes can take their own aquatic biology samples and learn about hydrology and water-based life right out the back door!
Then we tackled the biggest challenge. Access to or cost of gear is a hurdle that families must overcome in order to try a new outdoors activity. We have to remove that. We are starting an outdoor gear library. Kids and families can come and checkout outdoors gear (binoculars and birding books, cross country skiis, camping gear, GPS for geocaching, ice fishing equipment, etc.). We will be adding a lot more (yes, including hunting gear....but not firearms).
I am posting this in hopes that somewhere in the Rokslide world there is a group that wants to get kids into the outdoors, away from screens and on to the road that so many of us have taken. If so, I would be happy to share all that we have learned to help you with any of these initiatives.
We do have a website and youtube channel, but not sure if it is okay if I can post that or not, so I will leave that off.
