Hello fellow THFers,

I have an chance to help with two problems of today. The first, many of you know about, is that the number of people hunting and fishing today is on the decline. The second, I’m sure you also know of is the trouble available for inner city kids to get into when they do not have enough positive things in their life. I have read stories on this forum about problems troubled youth have gotten into and some of them have even been mentioned by me.

As middle school teachers of 11-15 year-olds in a very high At Risk School, my brother-in-law (Mossman on this forum) and I are always sharing information about the outdoors with them as we teach and talk to our students. Since we both fish and hunt together we occasionally show them pictures of our fish caught, game camera pictures, etc. As you would expect, we get tons of questions about the outdoors from students whose only experience outdoors may be the P.E. field for an hour a day. Unfortunately, not enough of our students have role models to take them on these types of activities or those that do have role models really don’t have the knowledge of where to begin. These were things that I even took for granted as a kid growing up.

After many years, we finally have a rare opportunity to help at least with some of the problems our kids get into and get youngsters interested in outdoor activities as well. We plan to start an outdoor’s class for our students after school. Of course we are limited in what we can do with what we have, but we hope to, at a minimum, introduce our students to the outdoors and some of what it has to offer as of which many of you are already so much aware of.

Our plan is to teach the basics in: archery, compass navigation, backpacking, fishing, knot tying, fire building, outdoor cooking, animal identification/tracking, and plant and insect identification. Since this is new to us, it will be a “learn as you go” program for the students and us as well.

While Mossman and I would not claim to be experts, I hope we can pass on some of our knowledge to help future outdoorsman keep the sports we love alive for many years to come.

I hate to ask anyone for anything, just not the way I was raised, but with a limited budget at school right now, we do need help. If any of you have any of the following items laying around that you no longer use or maybe it needs a little work, we can put it to good use within a great cause. I’m no expert, but I can fix a few things. Even if you have rods and reels that may need a little work, broken eyelets, rusted up, etc.; we will take anything. Of course we would take new items as well. We are desperate.

Tackle boxes
Any Tackle (Especially hooks, bobbers, and line)
Rods
Reels (since they have never fished before, closed face “Zebco 33” types would probably
be the most versatile)
Backpacks
Pup Tents
Compasses
Camping Stoves
General camping equipment

I’ll be glad to pick up items around the Metroplex when possible; we are at school a lot so I can’t always get away on short notice.

Items can also be mailed to us at the following address:

Bowie Middle School
Attn: David Fontenot
600 E. Sixth Street
Irving, TX 75060

Again, this is our first year so all the kinks are a long ways from being worked out. We are talking to some organizations like the Dallas Safari Club to get advice. But I will listen to any suggestions that you all have.

Mods, I apologize if this is in the wrong place but I couldn’t think of a more appropriate place to post it. Please move if necessary.

I’m also posting this on the TFF as well, even though I spend most of my time here.

P.M. me or email me if you have any questions/concerns.

Thanks for anything you can do, even if it’s just praying this goes well for us and stays safe for all involved.


David Fontenot (cajundave)
Bowie Middle School
History Department Chair
davidkfontenot@gmail.com

Thanks George for the PM info!

Not even advice?

How're you going about doing this? Are you doing this through the boy scouts? The school? Or church?

You know, the decrease in the number of hunters will lead to an extermination of firearms ownership and our hunting heritage. This is the perfect way to keep the hunting heritage alive, despite increasing urbanization. These kids will be future voters who vote on gun control laws. If their only exposure to guns is inner city gang violence, then guess how they're going to vote when they reach adulthood?

Don't think guns can be banned in the US? I invite you to think of Australia. They had a gun culture and similar frontier history. However, following several madman shootings, the polititians capitalized on them to hastily ban all firearms in Australia. The real crocodile Dundee (of which the movie was based on) was recently killed by police. They were trying to seize his guns.

It makes me laugh when I see people hoarding guns and ammo at gun shows in anticipation of the impending bans. They'll just end up like crocodile Dundee. You might be surprised to find that the more productive approach would be to use that time and money to organize grass roots efforts to halt gun control just like this one posted by cajundave. Hoarding guns and ammo will NOT do you any good when guns are BANNED because you'll just end up DEAD. I mean, if guns are banned, then you can't use them to defend your life anyways, so what's the use in hoarding them? This is because if you use them to defend your life, you WILL LOSE YOUR LIFE either to life imprisonment or a shot to the head, just like crocodile Dundee.

Tell me when you and the kids will meet next and I'll see if I can rustle up some stuff and money for y'all. Post your schedule here. Let's keep fighting them in court, in the poll booths, and most of all, let's win the hearts and minds of Americans for the 2nd Amendment!

Through the school, TPWD had a program to support archery education. Contact Kent Irvin at TPWD Dallas, he helped us a lot...

Kent is no longer employed w/TPWD...Robert Ramirez is at that location now.

I just now saw this post so I'm thinking.

The first thing that comes to mind is to take them to State parks, Caddo Grass lands, nature centers, fish hatcheries ect...

try nasp, national archery in the schools program

Take them camping live them for three days in the woods with all the stuff to camp with and they will learn.

Good comments and info from all, exactly the info I'm looking for. We weren't even aware of the NASP thing. I'll add it to list of things we are checking out. We have been talking with people from the Dallas Safari Club which will help with TPWD. We really want to make this a P.E. credit for next year. I know, as much as I liked my sports, I would have loved a class that involved hunting, fishing, and camping.

Today was our first group of kids. We are now starting to find out some things about how it all will work. We have two meetings a week, A Tuesday group and a Wednesday Group of kids.

Today, we lined up a dozen 6-8 grades and taught them archery(God bless overstocked P.E. departments with equipment left over for pillaging). It was great to see them. They didn't care so much about bull's eyes or even hitting the target. One little girl couldn't stop smiling just because she "got the arrow to go." When they left, they were talking about how good they would be next week and who would be the best shot, etc. I marked the firing line with deer antlers donated from Kuby's in Dallas and rope. The kids even thought that was great.

We only have one hour with them as of now and are working on getting more time and every bit of field trips time we can. Someone on the fishing forum was kind enough to offer his guide service for a few kids...so needless to say, basic fishing will worked in soon as well.

One of our goals is to take them out to our lease this year to spot animals, make plaster of paris track impression, fish, and maybe target shoot(pending) liabilities/laws,etc. Because it's done through school with Title-1 money, there are a ton of guidelines we have to follow which is the world of public school bureaucracy. Getting our kids to actually hunt is going to take some clever wording and "working" with/around the system.

Right now our goal is to make it as fun as we can to keep their interest up, but still teach them what the outdoors has to offer and the value of it all. Like I said, we want to expand it in the future. We have already had more request for enrollment sheets in next semester group than are even registered in this semester's class. We expect this to grow pretty fast but that's ok with us. I've already had some students tell me they would work harder on getting their grades up so they could participate in the program.......perhaps the best purpose of it all.

We were told this week that we may be guaranteed this program for the next 5 years. That was good new for us.

Keep any info coming, and we also appreciate the words of encouragment as well. It's been a real blast for us.

Thanks guys, pray this goes well and stays safe.

I remember when I was in school, there was no animal experimentation allowed in science class. My parents told me that when they went to school in the 50s and 60s, they were allowed to dissect live frogs to see how real hearts and lungs worked in a living being. I am sure that they will probably not allow you to hunt live animals with the kids. You may have to do a "simulated" hunt with a stuffed and/or taxidermy animal and blunt/nerf bows/arrows. You may also want to contact the local friends of the nra since they donate a lot to local programs just like yours. It will help if you get people to pledge to donate to friends of the nra if they'll include you in their program. I'll be more than happy to sign this pledge/petition for you. Just an idea....

I have some rods that are darn nice rods that I got in a poetry contest about the outdoors off of another forum that are light action. Never been used. I will be HONORED to send them to your cause. Thank you for doing this

contact us sportsmans alliance, they have the trailblazer youth adventure program that does a lot of the things you are trying for.

Wow, you guys are wonderful!

If you were any dumber, you'd have to be watered.

Leave, not live

Your program sound kind of like The Boy Scouts Of America program. I am sure there are troops near you that would help with the teaching of the things. Check with your local BSA Troop or office. I hope this help you out a little and I commend y'all for what you are doing.

PM sent

My program is actually funded through the school system with federal money, therefore we can't put any money into outside organizations unless approved and Boyscouts isn't...and that's another thread.

However, that hasn't stopped me from breaking out the old boyscout manual and using it. We also have a lot of girls in the course and I can't or won't exclude them.

We are encouraging them to join boyscouts and girscouts though...the problem though, is most of our kids don't have the money for it.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

Got it and replied, thanks.

FYI for those that were gracious enough to volunteer time,

When having adults working with kids we do have to have a back ground check on file with the school. It's a standard policy we are unfortunenatley forced to do in order to protect our kids from those who don't have the kids best interest at heart in this world...don't get me started on that one.

Thank you to those who have replied either here or on PM's with offers to help. It's really opening up doors to how great people on here really are...but I already had a good idea of the quality of people on this site.