Saturday, Apr. 19, 2008

Outdoor expo set for Kennewick in May

Herald staff

An event in Kennewick next month will take young people and their families on an outdoor expedition.

The second Youth Outdoor Adventure Expo will be at the Benton County Fairgrounds from May 16-17, with an array of activities and demonstrations planned to showcase a range of outdoor recreational experiences.

Sponsored by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and the nonprofit Go Play Outside Alliance of Washington (GoPAW), the expo is open to secondary school students and their teachers May 16.

The event is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 17. There is no admission.

The expo will include instruction and demonstrations by outdoor experts and educators. Among the activities will be fly tying, outdoor survival, bird identification, casting, catch-and-release fishing, firearm safety, reading a compass, fish identification and more.

There also will be a canoe and kayak pond and a trout pond, said John Kerwin, Fish and Wildlife’s public outreach manager. And a 1,000-gallon aquarium will be filled with warmwater fish species found in the region, he said.

Last year’s inaugural youth expo, held in Longview, drew 4,000 youth and nearly 1,000 adults, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. Officials want to move the event to different regions of the state each spring to reach young people who’ve had little, if any, exposure to outdoor pursuits.

“We’re trying to reach out to kids to give them an appreciation of our natural resources and what they can do outside,” Kerwin said. “In a lot of instances, kids are not exposed to these types of activities, and this is an effort to bring all these outdoor activities together into one place.”

Fish and Wildlife Director Jeff Koenings said the expo is intended to help students become aware of wildlife and natural resources.

“Young people increasingly spend more time indoors exploring the Internet than outdoors exploring their environment,” Koenings said in a statement. “That’s why the skills and experiences offered at the youth expo are so important.”

Over 40 schools already have signed up for the Friday event, which will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Kerwin said.

The target audience is third- to eighth-graders, according to Fish and Wildlife. Schools can continue to register students through April 30. Schools interested in registering should contact Keith Underwood, a Fish and Wildlife outdoor specialist, at (360) 902-8310.

GoPAW also is offering a fuel stipend of $100 per bus, or $40 per van with at least eight students, on a first-come, first-serve basis to schools to offset the cost of travel.

A handful of sportsmen’s groups and businesses have made donations to help fund the event.

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