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Crookston resident Fred Parnow, President of Get Kids Outdoors, has been busy getting the fish house off the river and into storage as well as working on summer plans to continue the foundations mission. We asked Parnow how the fish house did in its first year on the ice. “We put the fish house on the river for families to use and we had really no expectation of a number of times it would be used to gauge our success,” said Parnow. “We were really, really pleased. The community not just Crookston but families in surrounding towns used it, 41 times it was used, in the couple months it was on the river. We thought that was phenomenal.” Not really knowing what to expect as far as numbers that would use the house and how the house would fair with numerous people coming and going Parnow was overall really pleased with the results. “We want to thank all those people, all those families, they were very respectful,” says Parnow. “You get concerned about vandalism and things like that, and there was not a scratch on it. It was just awesome. So, obviously it was a successful program.”
What Parnow was really anxious to talk about is that Get Kids Outdoors and three camps in Minnesota are collabrating to provide scholarships to get kids out exploring nature on a fun filled wilderness trip. “With the foundation our mission here again is to provide opportunities for kids for outdoor activities and learning. Learning in the classroom and learning, hands on activity,” says Parnow. “We are offering through our foundation, Get Kids Outdoors, a scholarship for kids and we have identified three different camps and a couple cases they have facilities for 150, 300 kids, depending on the camp.” Some of the camps we spoke about are year round camps that offer programming to schools. With summer just around the corner though Parnow wanted to talk about the options these camps offer to kids as warmer weather approaches. “What we are talking about here is they have different camps that kids can go to. There’s girls camps, there’s boys camps, there’s co-ed camps, there are camps for eight year old kids all the way up to 18 and 20,” says Parnow. “ There’s camps for kids and the parents, like a family camp and it’s pretty well all outdoor activity based type camps and it meets the mission of our foundation.”
So, what camps is Get Kids Outdoors partnering up with to offer these scholarships? “So, we are offering scholarships for three different locations. The one is called Lake Trails Base Camp. Actually, it’s up on Oak Island on Lake of the Woods. It’s primarily a canoeing camp and it’s about a six day trip I believe it is,” says Parnow. “Then the next one is Wolf Ridge, a lot of people have heard about that. It’s what they call a residential, environmental learning center, there is actually five of them throughout the entire state.” Wolf Ridge is located north of Duluth a little ways Parnow says. “They’ve got probably 15 or 20 different camps for kids and families,” says Parnow. “And there again, the subject is the same , it’s outdoor learning. They have classroom portions of it and they have outdoor fieldtrips right on Lake Superior.” The third camp that Get Kids Outdoors it teaming up with is, Deep Portage Learning Center which is located in Hackensack, MN, near Walker. “They have summer camps for kids as well, here again, each camp is quite specific to the interest of the kids but is very broad there whole campership time through the summer,” says Parnow. “So, we are encouraging parents and families to look at these three different camps and there locations and gather more information about the specific programs.”
Once families have taken a look at the three camps and all they have to offer, Parnow would like to hear from those who are interested. “Our foundation, we are willing to support, through scholarships, so to speak. In some cases they call them a Campership. We want people to look at these camps, give us a call, we will discuss individually what their thoughts are and where we can go, what level we would provide some scholarship support for the kids to go to these places,”says Parnow. “What they are going to learn at these camps, it’s just phenomenal. My wife and I have been to the Deep Portage Camp by Hackensack and they have classroom facilities that are all environmental, nature, and wildlife learning topics. Then they go on fieldtrips. So, it’s a mix of classroom training, education, plus outdoor field trips pertaining to the topics they just learned about.”
Parnow encourages parents to get online to look at the three camps and then get a hold of him at 218-280-6344. The three websites are www.laketrails.org, www.deep-portage.org, and www.wolf-ridge.org.
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