SAM Wins Three Outdoor Heritage Grants

Outdoor Kids Magazine and Website

            A $20,400 grant from the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund will allow SAM to establish an outdoor kids magazine and website.

            The magazine and website will help children appreciate, understand and experience the Maine outdoors, and link young sportsmen who are already enjoying traditional outdoor sporting activities including hunting and fishing.

            Most of the magazine will be written by children and will be filled with their photographs.  To encourage their participation, SAM will create an annual outdoor kids essay and photo contest.

            The magazine will be emailed free to children, teachers, schools, parents, and anyone who requests a copy.  It will also be available in a special section of SAM’s website.

            This program will replace TRACKS, a magazine for elementary school children that SAM has been distributing for more than a decade with special targeted donations from fish and game clubs and individuals.  We believe we can reach many more children with the new magazine and website, and get the kids really involved in the publication.  We hope to direct donations that have been paying for TRACKS to the new magazine and project.

            The objectives of the project include educating children about conservation and the environment, showing them the many ways they can enjoy the Maine outdoors, linking children who are already enjoying traditional outdoor experiences and allowing them to share their experiences and enthusiasm with each other, and inspiring kids to care about the conservation of Maine’s outdoor resources.

            The magazine will also involve parents and grandparents in a way that allows them to pass on their love of the Maine outdoors, hunting, and fishing.

            Kelly Cochara in the SAM office is responsible for implementing this project, and hopes to have the first edition of the magazine available by the fall of 2004.

            Cochara hopes to name an editorial board to work with her on the project, and is soliciting interest from teachers and others who would like to work with her on this important project.  She can be contacted at the SAM office.

            The editorial board will help Cochara develop the criteria for an annual outdoor kids essay and photo contest.  Children will write a short essay about their “best outdoor adventure,” and submit photographs in a variety of categories including wildlife and recreation.

            Winners of the contest, who will have their stories and photos published in the magazine, will win scholarships to any of the programs at the Maine Conservation School.  The school hopes to incorporate the contest – and a new training program to teach the kids writing and photography – into its curriculum.

            SAM’s grant application noted that “the preservation and protection of Maine’s outdoor heritage clearly lies in the hands of the state’s children. If they are to cherish that heritage – indeed, if they are to assure that it remains for future generations - they must understand its importance and enjoy the Maine outdoors themselves.   We’re raising too many couch potatoes!  Our children need to learn about issues and explore recreational options.   A simple trip to pick wild blueberries, catch a bass in a neighborhood stream or pond, climb a mountain, or hunt pheasants behind a good bird dog j- these are the things that can and should make childhood in Maine very special.  But many children do not have these opportunities, or are not taking advantage of them.

“Outdoor Kids magazine will provide them with something they’ve never had before – the ability to share their experiences and enthusiasm with other children.  Currently there is no place that kids can go to share their outdoor experiences, especially their hunting and fishing experiences.  Except for an occasional story in outdoor publications like the Northwoods Sporting Journal and The Maine Sportsman, you just don’t see stories about or by outdoor kids.

Children can learn from other children.  And most importantly, those that are enjoying these experiences can be linked to each other in a way that reinforces and strengthens these activities for all children.

We see a special need to introduce young Mainers to their hunting heritage.  For every two seniors who end their hunting days in Maine, only one young hunter steps up to continue the tradition.  Ironically, hunting is becoming increasingly more important in the state’s wildlife management programs – but we are attracting fewer and fewer participants to the hunting sports.

The state’s natural resource agencies and organizations also need a way to communicate with children about everything from conservation to safety issues. There is a serious lack of information about programs and projects that are available for Maine kids. 

For the first time, we could reach children directly to tell them about programs and opportunities like Hooked on Fishing, DIF&W Wildlife Park, Hunter Safety Courses, Youth Field Days, Maine Conservation School programs, DMR’s Officer Salty, and many other interesting opportunities for learning about the Maine outdoors.  And we could provide information directly, such as how to operate a motorboat safely.

SAM has made a commitment to insure the contest and magazine will reach children throughout Maine for many years. SAM will make fund-raising for the magazine part of its annual strategic plan.

The project coordinator, Cochara, will build an email distribution list, including all the children who enter the contest and their teachers, elementary schools, libraries, outdoor organizations, Maine Conservation School graduates, Hooked on Fishing participants, and those who buy junior hunting licenses or take state safety courses. Anyone who requests the magazine will receive it and those who receive the magazine may make and distribute as many copies as they wish.

Kids and Gun Safety Ads

            Paid media stressing the importance of firearms education and encouraging the safe storage of guns will be launched later this year, thanks to a $15,200 grant to SAM from the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund.  The grant was awarded in late November.

            URSUS Productions of Waterville, the producer of three Maine television shows will implement the project.  SAM’s partners in this project are the Maine Chiefs of Police Association and the Maine Bureau of Health’s Injury Prevention Program.

            This project will expand a gun safety campaign started by SAM and the Maine Chiefs two years ago, and also funded by Outdoor Heritage grants.  That project produced a very effective poster that was distributed to gun shops and other places where adult sportsmen would see its message urging firearms education for kids and the safe storage of firearms.

            In addition to distributing the remaining posters to gun shops and fish and game clubs, URSUS will create print and television ads stressing the same themes:  reminding readers and viewers that education is the key to gun safety, and parental responsibility and gun safety go hand-in-hand.

            “Safe storage of guns and ammunition is also critical,” say the ads, “especially in homes with young children.  Please be aware that Maine law holds you responsible and liable for gun accidents in your home.  Be a responsible parent.  Or be a good friend.  But most of all, be careful.  Safety is everyone’s business,” concludes the ad.

            The URSUS 30-second TV ad will incorporate the text and image contained in the poster, as well as the script.  Copies will go to all Maine commercial and cable TV stations to be used as a public service announcement.

            URSUS will also run the ad for a period of 13-weeks on its three television shows:  Northeast Journal, the Maine Outdoorsman, and Wildlife, providing airing of the ad 12 times per week.

            A video on gun safety and education issues, produced earlier by URSUS for the Bureau of Health, will be turned into a half-hour program and aired at least twice on Northeast Journal and the Maine Outdoorsman.

            The gun safety poster will also be reformatted as a print advertisement and provided to sportsmen’s clubs and other outlets throughout the state for newsletters and other printed material.

            In addition, the poster-ad will be placed in four publications as full-page color ads:  The Maine Sportsman, Northwoods Sporting Journal, Maine Fish and Wildlife Magazine, and Maine Hunting and Trapping Laws and Rules 2005 Book.

Hunter Image Campaign Wins Grant

            SAM has received a $25,000 grant from the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund for it’s new project, “Continuing the Tradition:  Improving the Image of Maine’s Hunters.”

            The focus of the program will be to tell the general public about why Maine needs hunters and hunting and create a positive image for our sport.

This grant will develop a public awareness campaign to help reverse the trend of diminished recreational access to private land (much of it caused by lack of understanding of the benefits of hunting). It will educate landowners, community officials, outdoor enthusiasts and the general public about Maine hunting, including its excellent safety record, its value in wildlife management, its economic impact and its long tradition in Maine – and thereby help DIF&W maintain hunting as an important wildlife management tool.

The project will improve understanding of Maine’s hunters, hunting heritage, hunting benefits, and wildlife management, as well as increase public support for the continuation of hunting and its use for managing wildlife populations. It will also address some of the most pressing problems of the past two decades – declining hunters, stressed relations with landowners, out-of-control wildlife populations, and an increase in posted land.

 Maine needs a public awareness campaign to educate landowners, community officials, outdoor enthusiasts, and the general public about the value of hunting.

Not only is it essential to reassure people of Maine’s excellent safety record, but also to help them understand the crucial role that hunting plays in wildlife management. Most don’t realize the economic impact hunting has on the entire state. They need to be connected to the long heritage of hunting in Maine. And they need to see who Maine’s hunters are: men and women, old and young, their neighbors, their co-workers and their friends.

This campaign will include television and radio ads in which Maine hunters of all ages and walks of life can talk about why hunting is so important to them and to our state.  Sponsors will be sought for these ads, which can include a tag line crediting the sponsor.

Two hundred new banners with the message:  “Welcome Hunters – Keep Hunting Safe” will be printed and distributed.  At its own expense, SAM printed and distributed one hundred of these banners this year in a very successful start to this part of the project.  They were displayed at convenience stores and tagging stations throughout the state.  In addition to SAM’s logo, the banners have space for the logo of a fish and game club, and some Maine clubs paid for and distributed banners as part of this project.  The MOHF grant will allow us to expand this project in 2004.

The grant will also be used to create and distribute a media information kit to provide more information to reporters and editorial writers about hunting and hunters.  The kit will contain facts in four areas:  economic impact, wildlife management, safety, and history.  It will contain all the available data about the previous hunting seasons, as well as stories about the upcoming seasons.

Finally, the grant will be used to establish a team of hunters and wildlife professionals to meet with editorial boards and reporters throughout the state, to deliver and review the important information in the media kit.  Appearances on radio and television shows will also be scheduled, and local hunters will be recruited to deliver the kit to weekly newspapers.  An electronic version of the media kit will also be available on SAM’s website.

We hope this campaign will continue for years to come.  It will promote better understanding between hunters and their neighbors, increase public knowledge about Maine’s wildlife resources and public support for hunting and wildlife management. It can also help hunters feel good about being part of a tradition that is as old as Maine itself.

The outcome of this annual campaign will be visible across Maine for many years to come.  Hunters will be welcomed at their local stores by SAM banners, and reminded to keep hunting safe (and the linkage of these two words: “hunting” and “safe” will be constantly put in front of the public).  The faces of Maine hunters and the story of hunting’s value will be seen on television, heard on the radio, and read in the state’s newspapers.  And non-hunters will have a chance to learn about hunting’s long heritage and its impact on Maine.