Opening the Door
By Bobby Cole- Western KS Program Coordinator
Most people that are passionate about the outdoors are familiar with the recruiting, retention, and reactivation movement. Anyone that loves the outdoors should push to make the sport more inclusive, but how do we do it? Some “experts” on the subject will say that it must be done a certain way. I honestly don’t think there is a right or wrong way. I think the best thing we can do is just open the door and invite them in. Then it’s our responsibility to ensure that they are knowledgeable on how to be proficient, safe, and ethical outdoors.
In the Aug of 2022, I was conducting a planning meeting in Garden City, KS. Speaking with the group, one of the attendees said “Why would I mentor for Pass it on! Outdoor mentors, When I could just go grab a kid from Real Men Real Leaders and take them out?”. I don’t think he knew that one statement would lead to 20+ kids going through hunters’ education and getting involved in our program.
When I got home that evening, I began researching Real Men, Real Leaders. I quickly realized the kids in this program didn’t grow up the way I did. Most of them didn’t come from a traditional hunting and fishing background, most of them have never even seen a firearm. Real Men Real leaders was founded with the mission statement of “Cultivating Young Men into Leaders by Influencing Positive Decision Making”. All the alumni and current students stay involved with the community to make a positive impact through volunteer work to make a positive impact.
I was able to contact Jonas Cruz, the full-time coordinator for Real Men Real leaders, and tell him about our program. Jonas said the experience would be beneficial but many of the potential participants lacked experience in the outdoors. After a while we were able to formulate a plan. We decided that we would start by getting the kids hunters’ education certified and start taking them hunting and fishing in small groups. Then during the summer of 2023, we would put on clinics to further their knowledge and experience.
We started with our first hunters’ education class in October of 2022. We put 10 of their kids through that class. They were eager to learn but we quickly realized their lack of firearms knowledge was going to make things interesting. That first day we spent two hours teaching the kids how to hold, operate and shoot a shotgun, this reinforced our need for future clinics.
After a long day of instructions and practical testing, all the youth passed hunters ed!
We spent the rest of the season taking these young men on different hunting trips. Pheasant, Dove, Quail, and deer hunts. Each hunt would start with a safety talk then cover how to operate the firearm each youth would be using. We would have one mentor per youth and have them constantly reminding the youth to “keep their fingers off the triggers” and “point their barrels in a safe direction”. We taught them what to do when a dog goes on point and how to lead a bird depending on the direction it flew. When they would shoot a bird, we would show them how to clean it and explain to them the different ways they could cook it, the kids would take the birds home to their parents and eat it with their family. They loved it! With each hunt, we could see the confidence in what they were doing grow. For the deer hunt we used crossbows, we spent an entire day with two of the kids teaching them crossbow safety shot placement and how to safely operate the crossbow. The two boys spent an entire day in a blind with two mentors. Though no shot presented itself, the boys saw several deer as well as various other animals.
Since the end of the season, we have taken several students fishing and conducted a second hunters education course. We also took four of them turkey hunting. One individual student enjoyed fishing so much that he asked for his own rod and reel for his birthday. We have plans for additional crossbow, shotgun, and rifle clinics.
I am confident that with the continued mentorship from our mentors, we will turn some of these boys into ethical and proficient Outdoorsmen. Because of our efforts, they will one day Pass this on to their children; if we are lucky, they will mentor others one day!
We are making this happen because we saw an opportunity and simply opened the door and provided mentors, access, and equipment.
