KAMO Newsletter for January, 2019

Hello to all KAMO mentors, mentees and friends, this is KAMO President Mark Walters with my monthly update!

I honestly believe that Kids And Mentors Outdoors is going through one of its most positive
periods in it’s 12 year history. Though nothing is ever perfect, two of our chapters are experiencing solid growth. The Marsh/Point Chapter which would not be in existence at this time if it were not for several people refusing to let it die is on fire in a good way, just six months after it would have been buried. I will be attending their February 12th meeting with a chapter that as of that night will have officers, cash to work with and just coming off an excellent outing that really unified the group with plans for two events in the near future.

In early January I received an email from a group of very organized people out of Dodgeville that have run a kids fisheree for the last three years. I was told that they had an excellent turnout each year and that after a meeting the night before had talked about potentially starting a KAMO Chapter.

Long story, I spent this past weekend staying with, helping in their fisheree and talking about a potential KAMO chapter with eleven men and women in the age bracket of 24 to 30 that really have it together. Folks I do not want to lead you on but with time and no pushing I believe there is an excellent chance that we will have a KAMO chapter in the Dodgeville area. I WAS EXTREMELY IMPRESSED!

In closing, our state members meeting and board of directors meeting will be held on March 23rd. Bob Nicksic is in charge of details but I want to ask all of you to be thinking about selecting your KAMO member to vote for, for the annual Presidents Award for a person that
you feel deserves to be honored for their dedication to helping KAMO to get kids outside.

As always, thank you for everything that you do for KAMO!

Mark G Waters

KAMO Mentoring Tip of the Month

My friends, this past two weeks us folks living in the north
country have experienced some extremely cold weather. This month I am
going to write about a subject that I have touched on in the past and it
works for me. Ever since 1989 I have earned a living by going on
weekly outdoor experiences and than writing about them. My income is
low, my health is excellent and I do not get cold. Here is my point,
wear multiple layers of clothing. It does not matter if you are sitting
in your house or camping on a frozen lake. Adjust to the air
temperature and layer up. I wear three pair of socks, starting light and
getting heavier. I always wear either longjohns or sweat pants
underneath my insulated work pants and when outside I wear about six
layers on the top half.
Sounds crazy to you, give this a try, you will see that what I just
wrote about works.

Submitted by Mark Walters

Webmaster Report
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Submitted by Mike Brown

News from the Baraboo River Chapter:

The Baraboo Chapter had its meeting on January 14 at Rivers Edge Resort. Having not had a December meeting, we were able to talk about some issues that we and others saw at this years Joe Hunt. As we are not the only chapter involved, we felt that the right thing to do would be to have it as a topic of discussion at this years state meeting. We discussed some of the things that will be on this years calendar of events such as Earth Day, summer fishing, camping June 21-23, Reedsburg Party in the Park, a possible trap shoot, Joe Hunt. We were given a donation from the Saint Cecilia Knights of Columbus in the Wisconsin Dells which consisted of a commercial sized popcorn maker and a church bingo machine with the blower machine and huge light up number board and thousands of paper bingo sheets. Not sure how or when we will put them to use, but we are brainstorming for ideas. Our next meeting will be on Feb. 11.
Submitted by Rick Miotke

News from the Coulee Chapter

In the month of January, we took a small group to a hockey game and are returning to the arena this week to watch hockey. We did not go to Winterfest this year because of lack of snow.
On February 2nd we have ice fishing at the Genoa Fish Hatchery which is followed by a tour of the new interpretative center at the facility. We will do sledding on the 16th, and snowshoeing and replacing duck nest materials at Myrick on the 23rd.
Our goals for 2019 include expanding partnerships. We are members of the La Crosse Mentoring Collaborative, a group devoted to having area mentor groups share ideas, resources, and combine activities. We are talking with Peggy Farrell of U.W. – Stevens Point about the KAMO chapter in La Crosse helping promote Becoming an Outdoors Woman (B.O.W.) activity here. Our hope is that some of these women would be interested in helping KAMO.
We are trying to promote the development of an outdoor archery range in La Crosse County through the use of the Department of Natural Resources range program. Randy and Mike meet with some county administrators this week. We want to take a group to the American Standardbred Adoption Program (ASAP) in March. ASAP is a rehabilitative horse ranch that has extended an invitation to us and we hope to use visits there to promote more girls to be interested in KAMO.
Some of our kids want to set up a self-guided treasure hunt in the area for both people in KAMO and the general public. This could be used to get families outdoors in places they may not be familiar with and increase awareness of the local KAMO. We would like to run an Internet Field Day hunters education class in the spring for some of our kids and open it to some students from the general public.

Submitted by Mike Brown

News from the Indianhead Chapter

We haven?t scheduled an ice fishing day yet; we might wait until March.
Submitted by Jim Kurz

No news from the Lake Wisconsin Chapter

News from the MarshPoint Chapter

On Saturday January 5th we all got together for a Winter Fun Day. We had beautiful weather and enjoyed being outside. We were able to shoot targets with BB guns, take a walk in the woods and identify animal tracks, enjoy a lunch over the fire, take a hayride through a Christmas tree lot, snuggle with some very cute puppies and meet some new KAMO members. This was a great event and we are very excited for the number of new mentors joining us. Our next meeting is February 12th at 6:30pm at Nutz Deep II. We are discussing things with our board of directors along with details for our next outing. Hopefully we will have some snow and go snow tubing in February and then March 2nd we are having an ice fishing event. There is a new found excitement for this chapter and we can’t wait to watch it grow.

Have a great day!

Submitted by April Onsager

News from the Meadow Valley Chapter

We had 8 members present at our January meeting.
We reviewed the Joe Hunt and the preparation that goes into it. We are thankful for the efforts of Rick Miotke, Bob Broduer, Patty and Jeff Rouse and others. As a club, we gave a gift certificate to Dennis Gosda, New Lisbon Sports Club president, for continually helping out during the hunter safety training. Dennis opens up the range, makes sure the wood stove is going, and assists each of the kids with proper shooting techniques.
Mentoring activities the last month included Aaron taking Allison deer hunting. She was able to harvest her first deer(doe)! Way to go Aaron.
Raffle ticket sales are going well. Our drawing will be February 2nd.

No further discussion on KAMO advertising ideas. Tabled for the February meeting.

Activities going forward:

Feb 16: Fisheree at Bigalkes pond
Feb 22: Pheasant hunt at Woods and Meadows
Mar 3: Maple Syrup day at Bob’s

Submitted by Bob Nicksic

News from the Northwoods Chapter

January meeting held Wednesday the 16th.
Good attendance for a cold night in Florence with all our holiday survivors back in good health.
The main focus of our first meeting in 2019 was our upcoming ice fishing outing on February 16th. All will be provided, as in the past, food, give-aways, bait and tackle…only the fish remain in question.
We are planning on attending the State meeting in March, so you can all look forward to Mr. Moll, Mr. Drewa and the old man gracing your attendance.
We will finally be getting the mono filament line disposal containers built and placed on the ten most popular landings in the area. A Saturday/Sunday project to be determined, that has taken longer than anticipated.
It was also decided to cut back on the monthly meetings and hold them only when needed to organize an upcoming event. Prudent and less burn out for all.
We are also going to have a KAMO adults river outing sometime in July/August with Mr. Mark Walters in attendance. Dwain will be in charge of security and granting all of Mr. Walters many wishes.
With the monies coming back from the state coffers, promotion and advertising was also up for discussion. Along with the annual scholarship being granted, that pretty much covers it.
One final note, we all wanted to thank Mike Brown for the professional job he has done with the web-site. Everyone owes him a big thank you.

Best to all,

Northwoods Chapter

Submitted by Mick Mlinar