Even as he strode toward the podium, Lorenzo Clemons started his closing pitch at the sponsor banquet for Fishin' Buddies! at club headquarters on South Halsted.
It was a timely pitch.
A couple of hours earlier, when I picked up my April 17 Sun-Times, the darkened front page featured a graphic three-line white headline: ''12 hours. 22 shot. 7 dead.''
Periods punching each line.
Could focusing kids on fishing and related conservation issues have saved some of those lives?
I'd love to say ''yes'' with conviction, but I can't.
Neither could Clemons, who is retired from the Cook County Sheriff's Department and now is the director of security at Malcolm X College. He lost a nephew to gang violence late last year, a nephew he reached out to and tried to connect to other activities such as FB.
It was interesting to hear a guy with a life in law-enforcement talk emphatically about how we -- men and boys, in particular -- must learn how not to ''macho up.''
I agree with that wholeheartedly. And not just because I'm in the outdoors field. I think learning about fishing -- and, through it, conservation -- is a true alternative to ''machoing up'' as a path to manhood.
John Kidd Jr., who helped found FB in 1991, thinks along the same lines. He has been successful at building programs aimed at a urban areas that give fishing and conservation training for youth.
Or as the FB objectives put it:
To introduce children to nature.
To introduce children to science.
To show learning can be fun.
To show children the magic of life all around us.
To mentor those in need.
To laugh, giggle and play.
To catch some fish along the way.
FB headquarters are attached to the family auto-repair business in the 9900 block of South Halsted. It's an odd but perfect place to build a connection to the outdoor world.
Building that connection takes more than time and effort. Kidd is willing to work for that, too.
''I don't have a problem begging people to reach in those pockets and pull out those Lincolns and Washingtons and even the Jacksons,'' he said at the luncheon, which featured entrepreneur Winston Langston as the keynote speaker.
FB has evolved from its roots in an annual fishing derby to include C.O.R.E. Kids (Cold Outdoor Recreation Experience); KIDS Fest, which was moved to Wampum Lake this summer (July 17) with help from the Forest Preserve District of Cook County; and the Youth Conservation Council, a conservation boot camp that started very successfully with two dozen kids last year.
George Lopez gave the presentation for the YCC youth at the luncheon. Some of the YCC youth served the hors d'oeuvres and barbecue. Like many successes who come through FB programs, Lopez is a sharp young man destined better things.
I try to do about a story a year related to FB. At each event, the kids are sharp, focused and respectful, and the natural connection sticks. Kidd, wife Andrea, sons John III and Julian and supporters such as Richard Wilborn, who has been there from the beginning, make sure of that.
What gnaws at me -- and I don't have an answer for it -- is whether an intensive fishing/conservation program along the lines of FB would work for what we used to call the ''hard cases,'' those we now more politely call ''at-risk.'' Could that help make less dramatic headlines after the first warm spring night?
For more on FB, go to fishin-buddies.net or call (773) 980-9350.
FIELD NOTES
MOREL OF THE WEEK
I received stories about morels, but no photos. So because I promised to start MOTW today, here's my first of the year: seven small ones on Monday. E-mail nominations to outdoordb@sbcglobal.net.
PLACES AND FACES
Michael Howard, the director of Eden Place Nature Center, a community-based environmental education center and nature preserve at 43rd Place and Shields on the South Side, participated in President Obama's Conference on America's Great Outdoors.
WILD TIMES
HUNTER SAFETY
May 14-15: Schaumburg, (847) 995-0200.
May 15-16: Gurnee, (847) 856-1229.
SALT CREEK CLEANUP
Saturday: Salt Creek Watershed Network (saltcreekwatershed.org) is sponsoring multiple events: LaGrange Park Salt Creek Cleanup, 9 a.m.-noon; meet at 31st and LaGrange Road. ... ''Canoe and Cleanup on the Creek,'' 8 a.m.; meet at Graue Mill parking lot. Contact Stan Zarnowiecki, (708) 606-4148. ... Katie Slivovsky, wildlife biologist and nature educator at the Chicago Children's Museum, gives a lecture/demo at 11 a.m. at Bemis North.
FISH GATHERING
Wednesday: Phil Gutmann on ''Sound & Color -- How It Affects Fishing,'' Walleyes Unlimited, 7 p.m., Gurnee American Legion, walleyesunlimitedusa.org.
FUN FUND-RAISER SHOOT
May 7: Barrington Area chapter of Ducks Unlimited, $70 includes 100 clays and fish fry, Northbrook Sports Club, dubarringtonil.org or contact Scott Hilpert at (847) 382-6604.
ILLINOIS PERMITS/SEASONS
Friday: Last day to apply for the first lottery of firearm/muzzleloader deer permits. ... Smelt netting ends on the lakefront.
Turkey hunting: Through Wednesday, third season, north zone. ... Thursday-May 5, fourth season, north zone. ... Through Wednesday, fourth season, south zone. ... Thursday-May 6, fifth season, south zone.
THE LAST WORD
''John Muir himself famously said, 'Everything's hitched to everything else.' That couldn't be truer today, as our air, our water and even our own future is hitched to finding a solution to the greatest environmental challenge human society has ever faced: climate change.''
Michael Brune, Sierra Club executive director, pushing for bipartisan cooperation to fight climate change in his Earth Day statement
BIG NUMBER
2-2 Pounds-ounces of the unofficial heaviest yellow perch, witnessed and weighed on a certified scale, caught from the Illinois waters of Lake Michigan. On May 10, 2004, Hans Johannsen caught that perch near the Waukegan ''Pipe'' on son Dieter's boat. On Tuesday, Hans caught a 2-pound yellow perch, weighed at the Salmon Stop, while fishing with Dieter.
DALE'S MAILBAG
Q: The attached picture shows some of the fun we had [at the Mazonia lakes]. What we thought was one nice fish was actually two hooked on the same bait (is that legal?). Must have been hungry. We boated about 20 nice-sized bass just off the boat ramp. John Morales was the angler. He spends many hours on the water, but this was a first for him. --Scott Benda
A: As long as both fish were hooked inside the mouth, they would be legally caught. As this oddity shows, we are near the prime time for the couple of hundred strip pits at Mazonia, just south of Braidwood.
Color Photo: Dale Bowman, For the Sun-Times / Youths set up tents during a ''sleepout'' last summer at Montrose Harbor, the kind of event Fishin' Buddies uses to introduce urban kids to the outdoors and conservation issues. Color Photo: Lorenzo Clemons Color Photo: George Lopez Color Photo: (See microfilm for photo description).
No comments:
Post a Comment