Post by trappermac on Oct 9, 2023 18:49:26 GMT -5
The Columbus Day weekend Pat Arnold Youth Trappers Camp at Rushford was a great success! We had 19 kids (three girls) participating and every group took some fur. We had 5 beaver and 5 coon and even a muskrat for the kids to learn fur put up on, several raccoon were released (part of the instruction). Every kid was eager and excited about trapping at the end. Several trapping items were raffled off, suffice to say every kid went home with traps and trapping supplies.
Myself and five other mentors took the kids afield for water and land trapping, we had an outstanding kitchen crew and facilities crew, and Rick and Patti Wattengal brought in their fur handling supplies and knowledge for 2 days. Kids who had not yet taken their trapping course received it, evenings were filled with cubby box building, trap setting contests, demos, etc. Jenn Pettit from the DEC came in on Friday evening after the campers arrived to discuss with the kids why trap, trapping ethics, etc. Special thanks to Jenn!
Special shout out to Bob Schmit, the Rushford Camp Coordinator who spent countless hours putting this together. It takes a tremendous amount of effort and dedication to pull this off and he hit it out of the park. Besides running the whole camp he also spent each day afield with a new mentor who didn't know the area. Huge kudos to Bob!
I can tell you as a guy doing the camp for the first time that it was extremely fulfilling to spend the 4 days being part of what I feel is where our focus should be, bringing the young ones into trapping and hopefully insuring our future. If you've ever thought about getting involved, stop thinking about it...and lend a hand. You'll be enriched for it.
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Myself and five other mentors took the kids afield for water and land trapping, we had an outstanding kitchen crew and facilities crew, and Rick and Patti Wattengal brought in their fur handling supplies and knowledge for 2 days. Kids who had not yet taken their trapping course received it, evenings were filled with cubby box building, trap setting contests, demos, etc. Jenn Pettit from the DEC came in on Friday evening after the campers arrived to discuss with the kids why trap, trapping ethics, etc. Special thanks to Jenn!
Special shout out to Bob Schmit, the Rushford Camp Coordinator who spent countless hours putting this together. It takes a tremendous amount of effort and dedication to pull this off and he hit it out of the park. Besides running the whole camp he also spent each day afield with a new mentor who didn't know the area. Huge kudos to Bob!
I can tell you as a guy doing the camp for the first time that it was extremely fulfilling to spend the 4 days being part of what I feel is where our focus should be, bringing the young ones into trapping and hopefully insuring our future. If you've ever thought about getting involved, stop thinking about it...and lend a hand. You'll be enriched for it.
freeimage.host/i/J3qoCWQhttps://freeimage.host/i/J3qTCyF
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