Expo 2010, Part 2

September 9, 2010 - We had a blast today at the Wyoming Hunting and
Fishing Heritage Expo. Today was mostly school groups from just about everywhere you can think of in Wyoming. We had kids from Casper and Riverton and Themopolis and Wheatland and Bill. In fact I think we may have had a pretty sizable proportion of the entire population of Bill, WY at our booth today.

We played the wildlife beanbag game, we talked about poop (yes, poop - we have a display of scat from a bunch of different Wyoming birds and mammals. We talked about habitat, we gave away magazines and candy bars and bumper stickers. Mostly, we just had fun.
It always amazes me how many kids in Wyoming don't really know all that much about wildlife. Hunting and fishing and being outdoors just isn't a part of their family culture. How can that be in a state like Wyoming, you ask? Simple. Wyoming isn't any different than anyplace else on the planet. If you don't get your kids out in the wild at an early age, it becomes really hard when you have to compete with soccer and video games and all the rest of the things vying for their time and attention when they get older.
My own philosophy is that no small part of the epidemic of obesity we're seeing in young people is that they don't participate in active, unstructured, outside play anymore. I read not long ago that the average kid spends almost 7 hours a day in front of a screen (computer or video or TV) but only about 7 minutes outside. That's a tragedy, not only for their bodies, but for their spirits. If we did nothing more than to help a few kids get outside and enjoy the outdoors today, then it was worth whatever it cost.
My thanks go out to WWF staffers Courtney Amerine, Dwayne Meadows and Joann Grant for their participation today. And kudos to board members Lonnie Allred and Brianna Jones. I love being a part of this team!

Walt Gasson, Executive Director
Wyoming Wildlife Federation