Wichita, KS, July 24, 2023. The Outdoor Heritage Education Center, a charitable
non-profit organization based in Hazel Green, WI and Pass It On – Outdoor Mentors will
be working together to expand a Shooting Sport Outreach Program to Wisconsin.
“Youth target shooting programs are rapidly growing, currently engaging more than
6,000 Wisconsin students in shooting sports. Our Shooting Sports Outreach Program
works to bridge the gap between the shooting sports and hunting,” stated Brittany
French, CEO for Pass It On – Outdoor Mentors. “We have proven that our model works.
In 2022 we coordinated over 500 events in both Kansas and Iowa. That resulted in over
1,200 youth out hunting and fishing! We are eager to expand to other states that have
vibrant youth shooting sports programs and well-connected local on-the-ground
partners to help guide our efforts, like OHEC in Wisconsin.”
According to OHEC Executive Director Ruth Ann Lee, “Like so many of our OHEC partners
who already help us connect people to the outdoors, Brittany and her team are a great
fit. We like working with collaborators who can work with entrepreneurial speed to
address urgent needs facing shooting sports recruitment, retention, and reactivation as
well as other outdoor education challenges that threaten the future of our outdoor
heritage.”
OHEC hosts the big Midwest Outdoor Heritage Education Expos in Poynette and
Milwaukee, reaching thousands of students, teachers, and parents each May. It operates
a fleet of Touch of the Wild hands-on education trailers that crisscross Wisconsin, and
for decades it has help teach new hunters and anglers as well as help launch and support
school archery and clay target teams.
Pass It On – Outdoor Mentors launched it’s Shooting Sports Outreach Program in Kansas
in 2019, coordinating 89 hunts for over 220 youth. Since then, they have doubled the
number of events and youth served year after year.
“We want to see these student athletes hunt a variety of species, engaging them and
their families with dove, deer, duck, geese, upland, small game and turkey hunts,” said
French. “We feel that it’s critical that today’s youth be given multiple opportunities to
hunt, hopefully making them life-long hunters and conservationists.”
OHEC support helps PIO begin to build a Shooting Sports Outreach Program in Wisconsin
that will help ensure that the Wisconsin outdoor heritage is successfully passed along to
the next generation.
About Outdoor Heritage Education Center
OHEC was founded in 1998 by Mark LaBarbera to connect people and resources. OHEC
volunteers and donors have helped launch clay target teams in a number of Wisconsin
schools. OHEC is an active leader in recruitment, retention, and reactivation (R3) efforts
that fit with its mission to help pass along our outdoor heritage to future generations
who are losing touch with the natural world, and to increase the public’s understanding,
appreciation, and sense of stewardship for natural resources and related activities like
fishing, hunting and other shooting sports. See www.OHECyes.org or email
RuthAnn@OHECyes.org.
About Pass It On – Outdoor Mentors
Pass It On – Outdoor Mentors, Inc. is a Wichita, Kansas-based national organization
dedicated to providing children with mentors who will share with them the experiences
of traditional outdoor activities. The heart of the group’s mission is to give children
opportunities to connect with nature that they more than likely won’t have without a
mentor showing them the way. Partnering with organizations with like-minded
conservation and youth participation efforts like Big Brothers Big Sisters, Pheasants
Forever, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, Delta Waterfowl, the Rocky Mountain
Elk Foundation and the National Wild Turkey Federation among others, volunteers with a
passion for the outdoors can give a child the chance to go fish, hunt, or simply spend
time in the fields with a caring adult. For more information about Pass It On – Outdoor
Mentors, please visit http://www.outdoormentors.org.
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