Thursday, October 02, 2008

It's the Outdoors, Stupid!

Santa Fe, New Mexico

In 1992 many credit President Bill Clinton's victory on a strategy suggested by the Ragin Cajun James Carville that they focus on the economy hence the phrase it's the economy stupid. Building Bridges to the Outdoors along with our partner the Santa Fe Mountain Center http://www.sf-mc.com/ recently hosted the Leave No New Mexico Child Inside Forum http://www.sierraclub.org/youth/newmexico/ in Santa Fe . The Forum brought leaders from accross the State of New Mexico including Lt. Governor Diane Denish and Santa Fe Mayor David Koss together along with national leaders Richard Louv and Cheryl Charles from the Children and Nature Network http://www.cnaturenet.org/ to discuss how we can work in unison to come up with common sense community based solutions to find strategies and ways to connect New Mexican children with the outdoors. During the panel discussion a young participant Maya Quintana looked at the crowd and said something that was so simple but resonated with all of us in such a profound way "It is pretty easy, we just need to get kids outside and nature takes care of the rest". It made me think about how the outdoors does give us such a wonderful platform in which we can engage young people from all walks of life in finding common ground through the outdoors. Looking around the room at the Forum I saw leaders from Pueblos, the social justice community and leaders from every political stripe struck by such a simple staement from a young natural leader.

Talking about natural leaders the Sierra Club along with the Children and Nature Network and the North Face hosted in Nebraska City, Nebraska the home of Arbor Day a gathering of over thirty young people who have shown leadership in their communities around the issue of connecting youth and the outdoors. An incredible amount of leadership was shown as young people discussed the ways we can work to find pathways to engage more youth leadership in the children and nature movement. Some points made were that we need to engage and showcase career paths and opportunities for young people. We will be working with this group to put together a Natural Leaders summit in mid 2009.

On the legislative front the Federal No Child Left Inside bill passed through the US House of Repersentatives http://www.cbf.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=34303.0 last week. Jackie Ostfeld our National Youth Rep was instrumental in its passage and worked with our Sportsmen team http://sierrasportsmen.org/ to work for its passage. The bill will need to pass through the Seante next year but it now has tremendous momentum. It showcases how the issue of connecting children and nature is resonating accross the country!

Here is a link to spot that Marcia Cross, star of Desperate Housewives did for BBTO. The print ad was showcased in Entertainment Weekly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqep0atXz24

Fall is here but nothing like seeing the colors change with family and friends!