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Teaching kids to enjoy the outdoors is a rewarding experience for both kids and mentors. But while you may be able to paddle Class V rapids, make an all-day climb of a snow-capped peak, and spend a full week in the wilderness backpacking, can you lead and manage a group of teenagers on a local day hike?
This online resource, created by The Outdoor Foundation, will introduce you to the soft skills that make great outdoor leaders. The material highlights stories, advice, and lessons gathered from professional outdoor leaders around the country. We hope that their shared experiences inspire you and help you grow as an outdoor leader.
The Outdoor Foundation will release resources for all six activities
listed below over the next few months.
The first release focuses
on paddling. Enjoy!
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READERS COMMENTS
You're missing some other outdoor activities. Caving and canyoneering come to mind, as well as fishing and canoeing (lakes or rivers).
Posted: Jul 09, 2009 Pat
Backpacker,
During the December of 2007, my wife Ashley and I read Richard Louv's Last Child in the Woods. We felt so inspired by the book, that we started a free monthly outdoor adventure club for families in Roanoke, Virginia. We call it, Kids In the Valley, Adventuring! We and our three kids host an adventure once or twice a month at a different park each month, with the goal of connecting more families to the local parks and showcasing the efforts of the many local and national programs that work to keep these areas so wonderful. Once the families are out at the parks, we also introduce them to ways to get connected and encourage them to volunteer together as a family. Ashley and I maintain a website at www.kidsadventuring.org and produce a monthly newsletter that now goes out to over 300 families. We generally have 50 or more people come out to our events. It has been very rewarding!
We have spoken about the benefits of family nature clubs to many different civic leagues and community groups. We have spoken in three different states, using our powerpoint presentation using pictures from our events and stories gathered along the way.
The only problem is that I personally am no master of the outdoors, as I spent much of my childhood with Sid and Marty Croft and Battle of the Planets! Now that I am learning about the outdoors as an adult, I look for as much information as possible. BACKPACKER has been a great guide for us. Insights into gear, inspirations for activities, and answers to common questions are just a few of the things we have gathered from our favorite piece of monthly mail. Thank you for the time spent gathering all of this together and for presenting the information in simple ways. The April issue BACKPACKER is in our backpack right now, as the gear guide is an inspiration for us for further outdoor adventures. The informative article: "How to Do Everything" from your November issue was exactly what we needed. When families come to our meetings, they expect us to be well informed. We are better prepared because we read BACKPACKER.
Thank you,
Chip and Ashley Donahue
Roanoke, Virginia
Posted: May 20, 2009 Chip and Ashley W. Donahue
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