04-03-2006, 12:51 AM
[cool][#0000ff]I've always had a soft spot for "inner city" kids. In my younger years, while living in California, I helped out with a scout troop that spent time every summer hiking along the Muir Trail in the Sierras and cleaning up camping areas that hikers had trashed.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Each spring, each of the scouts had an assignment to recruit another young man they knew to be from a "distressed" situation. Some were from single parent families. Some were just "bust outs". But, if they showed enough interest and determination, we got them outfitted (courtesy of local merchants) and whipped into shape to make the hikes.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Of course we had some "melt-downs" and failures, but we also had some heart-warming successes. We had kids that had never got better than a C in any class suddenly motivated to getting straight A's. Once they discovered the outdoors and decided to pursue careers in it, they found they had to do better in school and that was the motivation they needed.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I was lucky to grow up in a poor but outdoors oriented family. I learned the true value of hunting and fishing, and sharing those things with family members. It breaks my heart whenever I see kids that have never been exposed to any of the wonders of nature. They certainly have a distorted view of the world. I think those people are the ones that end up with PETA.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Each spring, each of the scouts had an assignment to recruit another young man they knew to be from a "distressed" situation. Some were from single parent families. Some were just "bust outs". But, if they showed enough interest and determination, we got them outfitted (courtesy of local merchants) and whipped into shape to make the hikes.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Of course we had some "melt-downs" and failures, but we also had some heart-warming successes. We had kids that had never got better than a C in any class suddenly motivated to getting straight A's. Once they discovered the outdoors and decided to pursue careers in it, they found they had to do better in school and that was the motivation they needed.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I was lucky to grow up in a poor but outdoors oriented family. I learned the true value of hunting and fishing, and sharing those things with family members. It breaks my heart whenever I see kids that have never been exposed to any of the wonders of nature. They certainly have a distorted view of the world. I think those people are the ones that end up with PETA.[/#0000ff]
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