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NFC: RE: Increase awareness of nfc



I'd be wary of giving awards out to "the most" or "the biggest" because that usually entails having a big budget, which would exclude so many projects that are great in educational value but small in size.
 
But I do agree that we need to give a lot of attention to AATP and give special recognition to the projects that are successful.  I also think if we see projects that are languishing, we need to see if there is anything we can do to guide that project back to success.  IMHO, every AAT project tank should have an NFC sponsor to serve as an advisor when needed/wanted.
 
The children are definitely the future.  I remember as a young boy, my grandfather took me to a camp every spring in New London, PA for a small organization that started a second chapter in Pennsylvania.  The name of the organization is "Brotherhood of the Jungle Cock".  I know all the pervs out there giggle when they hear that name but the name is of a jungle fowl.  Anyway, BotJC is a fishing camp held every year where an adult sponsor takes a number of kids fishing, and while they're having a good time teaches them about the delicate balance of nature and why it is important to preserve the environment.  My grandfather would always sponsor my way, and also take along a few other boys.  He used to teach a class their on saltwater fishing and in later years I helped him to teach that class. All of those kids right now like me are now twenty-somethings and thirty-somethings and out of the ones I have talked to since, they all have a keen awareness of how important it is to preserve our environment in order to make game fishing possible for future generations.
 
Now we can't really do any kind of national gathering yet that will draw that many people.  But BotJC started out, as I understand, with just a few guys in Maryland taking a number of neighborhood kids fishing for just one weekend.  Every year they added a few more adults that each took a few kids with them.  I think that, regionally, we can do something similar with collecting trips.  Doesn't have to last a whole weekend but just one full day on a good river with knowledgable collectors could be a memory of a lifetime for boys and girls of all ages to participate in.  They may not get into native fish, but they will think about how important all of those tiny fish are in the grand scheme of things.  We will have made an impact.  Some kids will latch onto this and bring some of their friends next time.  I'm looking forward to the spring when I will take along some college and high school students collecting.  Some have been with me before.  The others will be the friends that they want to bring along.  I can see them looking at the river differently now, recognizing which habitats would likely support a large darter population, and which stretch of river is likely to have large numbers of chub.  They're starting to realize what it takes to grow a big fat bass.  I know that when they go fishing now, instead of buying bait (which almost certainly isn't native to our waters) they capture some native fish to use as bait so they can easily turn the surplus loose at the end of the fishing trip.  Small changes like these in the minds of young people do make a difference as you expand the base of young people that you influence, and then those young people grow up and become elected officials, active voters, corporate officers, and others who make a difference.
 
Sorry to ramble.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-nfc at actwin_com [mailto:owner-nfc at actwin_com]On Behalf Of nickel55
Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2000 10:43 PM
To: nfc at actwin_com
Subject: NFC: Increase awareness of nfc

                                   I was just thinking of ways for nfc to become more known out there in the world, and one way would be through the Adopt a Tank Program. Maybe this has been brought to light before but I thought maybe some kind of competition could be added to the program. Some examples are: an award to the class or school that has the best natural looking aqua scape, or the class or school that has a good breeding program, or the school that has collected the largest number of different types of fish. Just an idea.
                                                                   nickel

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