KAMO – May, 2021 Newsletter
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President?s remarks – Hello everyone,
This is KAMO President Mark Walters with my part of the monthly Newsletter. Lots of very positive news to report this month. Most of our chapters are up and rolling, especially over the next 40 days with the Baraboo River Chapter doing their annual camping trip, Yellow River just doing a fundraiser, Northwoods planning their Hooked on Fishing event, Coulee planning several outings, and our newest KAMO chapter over in Beaver dam just doing an event at a youth trap shoot.
In reality we are just getting our feet wet and KAMO like everyone else in the world took a beating during Covid, but I think we made all of the right choices and did not pressure anyone and remained upbeat.
Back In late February of 2007 I talked to a group of about 12 people at the WDNR Nature Center in Florence. Mick Milner was one of those people and that would be the first meeting of what would become the Northwoods Chapter of KAMO and our very start of existence. Mick has been Northwoods President basically since that day and has been incredible and everyone in the UNIVERSE thinks he should become KAMO’s overall President.Anyways, to make a long and very positive story short, Mick is retiring his post and becoming a mentor.
I sure as heck remember those early days and all of them in between and will miss KAMO’s first member to be voted by our members to receive The President?s Award. John Johnson is highly respected in the Florence County area and has agreed to become Northwoods President and we?re all thankful to him for that. As always, I want to thank all of you for all that you do and urge you to give Mick a call and ask him to become KAMO’s next President andhe could even be given the title of “President For Life”. Thanks Mick.

Mark Walters

Background checks – Be aware that when you are running a background check on someone,the person undergoing the screening should be looking for it in their email, open it promptly, and complete it. The process itself is quick, but the invitation may time out if not opened.

Website – The kamokids.org site has been visited about 60 times a week,which is about ? of what we saw pre pandemic. This is a significant figure – please keep your chapter?s page up to date. Many of these viewers are first timers – over 80%. They are looking for information, especially about what your chapter might have coming up.

Chapter Reports –

Baraboo – The Baraboo Chapter had its last meeting on May 10 at Rivers Edge Resort. We will be having our annual campout at the Castle Rock County Park June 25-27. It looks like there will only be 3 mentors plus kids on three huge camping sites.
2,3,and 4. If anyone else would like to join us please email me at ramiotke65@yahoo.com. Our mentors have been spending time with kids turkey hunting, shed hunting, and searching for morel mushrooms. As the school year is coming to a close and the weather is getting nicer, more opportunities to work with kids will come up. I can only speak for our group, but we are very anxious to get back to normal activities. With the surge of tourists beginning to hit the Dells area we will be having our summer meetings at Kevin Seymour?s house. Tradition Forward

Rick Miotke

Beaver Dam – Held a recent meeting. Decided to name their chapter Dodge County Conservation KAMO. Set up a tent at the Beaver Dam Youth Invitational to educate the community on KAMO. Have a page on the kamokids.org website with contact info/ pictures.

Jim Braker

Coulee – Six members met on Monday,May 10th in Mike?s backyard and discussed a local Master Angler program available to some of our kids, went through a substantial amount of goods that have been donated to the group in the past 18 months (mainly hunting clothing and fishing tackle),and came up with events we thought we could do over the next several weeks. General fishing outings, a paddle,pedal,and picnic (3P) event on French Island,. Pontoon rides on the Black River, an outdoor art event in July, and a clay and pigeon shoot in the early fall.
In terms of getting started again, we have reached out to existing families and heard back from enough that will get us off to a start. We also have heard from some new parents and had a couple people we already know that they want to help as volunteers.
One mentor is out on the lake with two kids fishing as I write this and we have plans to go out on the Best Dam Fishing Float and mentor?s boats in June.

Mike Brown

Lake Wisconsin – Some mentors have had kids out turkey hunting and fishing. A couple people have expressed interest in mentoring and the group would like to start planning some activities

Bob Brodeur.

Meadow Valley – Plan to start meeting again in June.

Bob Nicksic

Northwoods – First and Foremost?We will be eternally indebted to Mick Mlinar for leading the Northwoods Chapter as President for 14 plus years with a great sense of humor, dedication to our mission, and some of the finest pheasant planting ever seen (only one fatality). Mick will still be an active member of our chapter and is passing the torch to our new President John Johnson. Here is a bio of John.

John Johnson
I have been a lifetime resident of Florence county other than college, spent the last 30 years as a forester and love everything outdoors. I look forward to helping represent KAMO and bring some fun and experience to the program, contact information
906-360-9517
Jjtimberbeast@yahoo.com
917 Chaplin St Florence 54121
Thanks, JJ

Note from Mick: John comes with enthusiasm and knowledge for all things outdoors with all kids at heart and will be a great asset leading the chapter into the future. After a year of closure, it?s great to be back.

Our remaining Officers have retained their positions after a contested election that may never be over!!! We have a Hooked on Fishing event scheduled for July 10th and hope to reel in some kids and fish on this catch and release outing. We have had up to 57 kids in the past and will see how the increase in the popularity of fishing affects our turnout. Each kid gets a T shirt, free lunch, and all the fish they can catch.
We were introduced to Jim Phillips?the founder of Sportsmen With Heart. Their organization sponsors kids fishing events, field trips with kids (some kids with cancer), and trips with kids and families that may not have the resources to get into the outdoors. Jim is very enthusiastic and looks forward to working with other charitable organizations. It was great to get back together as a Chapter and renew the spirit of the reason we exist.
Good Health to All and Have a Great Summer!!!

Jeff Moll

Yellow River – Held Festival Brat Fry on May 15th and netted $429.79. Received the donation of two kayaks from Randy Dragt. Looking to hold our first outdoor day in July to re-introduce some kids and families to KAMO.Recruited another mentor and two kids and have reached back to YouthNet who are excited to team back up.

Forward!

Brad Allen