KAMO October, 2024 Newsletter – 4 pages
For comments related to this document, contact Mike

President?s message – Hello to all KAMO members and friends of KAMO,
This is Kids And Mentors Outdoors, President Mark Walters with my monthly section of The Newsletter.
First, I participated in the Youth Deer Hunt and was a solid part of 2 young hunters harvesting their first bucks. In reality, for me, it is more fun than whacking one myself. One of those young hunters will be my hunter in The Joe.
Second, we have been having some communication issues in very simple areas concerning The Joe. Folks – Kevin, Rick, Mike and Bob get the job done as far as managing this hunt, please do your part by submitting the required information that they need as it is annoying for them to hit dead ends and miss deadlines, when the dead ends are being caused by people they are trying to help. I am asking that every President at your November chapter meeting discusses this and asks if all paper work and mandatory 3 hour classes have been met by the kids or adults that need to submit or participate. At this point we have 5 young hunters that did not take the 3 hour “safety class” required by the WDNR.
Third, not every BOD member was at the Wisconsin Dells meeting in September for The Joe and that is 100 percent understandable. We discussed several topics besides The Joe and one was paying a person that can creatively manage a facebook page for KAMO. Having a fb page that is well run is a must. This person would be paid $100.00 per month and after thinking about it, I think we should do a 3 month trial at $50.00 and move it to $100.00 if we feel this person is getting the job accomplished.
Fourth, I am more than aware that I do not accomplish everything that a president should. I participate in getting kids out and am pretty good at finding money and officers. I am weak in technology and have very little free time and I know it hurts KAMO.I want to make this clear as glass, no one is hurting my feelings if they feel they have the qualifications and the desire to be KAMO’s President. I feel change would be good and without a doubt my love for this organization would not allow me to just back off but the new president would be the boss.
Without the Mike Browns’, Rick Miotke’s, Kevin Seymour’s Jim Rydmark’s, Johnny Johnson’s, Greg Wagner’s, Bob Brodeur’s etc. etc., we would be in trouble.
As always, thank you for doing all that you do for KAMO!
Mark
Joe Hunt – Planning for the 2024 Mac Kenzie hunt (the ?Joe?)
The annual Joe Hunt (Learn to Hunt?deer) at the MacKenzie Center will be December 6th?8th. We are flexible, but looking at 20 kids max this year. The documents have been forwarded and reviewed. Nineteen kids are on the roster.

Kevin Seymour will again be the Huntmaster while Bob Brodeur will be the ?Land Manager/Hunt Site? Coordinator. Jeff, Patty, and Rick M. will be our Chefs for the weekend. Please reach out if you have questions.

Mentors – please make sure mentee and parents are made aware of requirements and expectations. Some of the kids have not had the 3 hour pre hunt class..

A volunteer is still needed to collect dorm fees.to collect dorm fees
The dorm fee is $20 per person

Administrative – We paid our annual domain renewal fee of $16.49 – this gives us the exclusive right to use kaamokids.org as our domain on the web. We also renewed our liability insurance plan through SECURA. This coverage is from Oct. 17th of 2024 – October 17th of 2025.
Each chapter was sent the new policy.

Chapter Reports

Baraboo – The Baraboo River Chapter of Kids and Mentors Outdoors held our monthly meeting on October 14th, 2024 at Rivers Edge in WI Dells. We were joined by KAMO President Mark Walters. Our group reported 200 hours of getting Kids Outdoors in the past month. Most of the time was spent during the Youth Duck Hunt, Youth Deer Hunt or preparation for the upcoming ?Joe Hunt?. We enjoyed discussing the youth hunting stories such as missing shots or falling into the slough when wearing waders for the 1st time. Most of the kids were successful for the Youth weekends with the help of our mentors. Fall is a busy time of year for our group and most mentors have recently returned from a trip or have an adventure planned in the next couple of months.
The Joe Hunt will be held Dec 6?8th at the MacKenzie Center with 20 kids maximum. The deadline for forms is quickly approaching (November 1st). Please reach out to Huntmaster?Kevin Seymour if you have any questions. We will be playing ?Buddy Bingo? on Saturday night and hosting a ?Hunter?s Attic? throughout the weekend. If you have prizes to donate or outdoor/hunting gear that is no longer needed/wanted, please bring along to the event. The Hunters Attic was a huge success last year, so this is being brought back by popular demand.
Help Wanted: Mark has said the State KAMO is looking to hire a Grant Writer and someone to take over the State Facebook page. Let Mark know if interested, or if you know of anyone that would be a good fit. We tried to convince Mark to include a note on this in one of his upcoming newspaper/on-line articles. We discussed a few of the Grants that are available for Outdoor Groups. We also discussed putting a monthly write up in a local community Facebook page and the Baraboo Chapter has recently added a link to our site on the Baraboo United page. Mark is encouraging all chapters to write a happy, positive post every few weeks and put in our contact info in the local community pages. This has generated huge responses for other groups.
Our next meeting will be Monday November 11th at the Upham Woods Outdoor Learning Center.

Coulee -14 people attended our firepit night with the Big Brothers/ Big Sisters at Pettibone Park. This was our fifth firepit event of the year. This is an easy outing to have and is popular. We bring a small fire pit unit into the park, get a small fire going and then set up some yard games – ladder toss, bean bag, football, frisbee. Once the fire is ready, we break out the s?more materials.
Four mentors hunted two properties in an adjacent county with their kids on October 5th. The following day, only two kids hunted and one got a doe. One of these kids connected with us through the Big Brothers/ Big Sisters. They could not find a Big match for him. The Bigs mentioned potential involvement in KAMO to his mother and she contacted us.
Our group met on the patio of the Nature Place at Myrick Park on the evening of Monday, October 21st. One topic of discussion was to have a fishing event to honor Kraig Hoff, who passed away in 2022. The Kraig Hoff Memorial Fishing Event sponsored by Coulee KAMO is one proposed title. We also discussed an upcoming waterfowl observation day
Mentors Fritz and Mike went to the Big Brothers/ Big Sisters offices on October 29th to talk about mentors working with some of their kids and plans for winter and into 2025.
Some older KAMOKIDS took mentor Fritz out to their duck hunting spot where he observed them bagging several ducks. Their picture appears on the Coulee KAMO Facebook page.

Dodge County Conservation – DCC KAMO Had a very active month. Duck hunting opened and it allowed a few of mentors to take some very excited kids out to try and bag some ducks.. A lot of bonding and a whole lot of nothing in the sky or in the Bag made for a Learning experience that hunting isn’t always about killing something but the friends that you make along the way. Also, some mentors were able to get out during the State Youth Deer Hunt. Some were successful and others enjoyed the weather and worked on their suntan. Planning and preparing for the Joe Hunt brought together Mentors and Mentees at the Pumpkin Center Sportsmans Club for the 3 hour LTH classroom instructions and sighting in the guns they will be using on the very exciting weekend in December.
The DCC KAMO Hunter safety instructors held another successful Hunters Safety class with 21 kid and 2 adults graduating with very impressive scores in the written exam and the Practical as well, Looking forward to the next few months and hopefully we will get these kids on some ducks, geese, pheasants and deer.Get a hid outside and see what happens.

Jim Braker Pres.

Meadow Valley – Youth are participating in antlerless hunts.
Mentors are gearing up for deer season.
We don?t have any kids participating in the Joe Hunt.
Bob Nicksic is willing to be a mentor for the Joe Hunt if one is needed.

KAMO Raffle (updated):
Ticket Sales: $8,845.00
Pay out: $6,100.00
Net gain $2,745.00

Thanks,
Jim

Northwoods – We held our trap/pheasant shoot on October 12th with 24 kids coming out and harvesting birds in excellent weather. In our latest mission we have picked up 40 mountain bikes from the school at a bid of $600. these bikes have been in storage for 15 years and never hardly used. Our plan is to get the bikes up and going using a local Torpedos group from school. They are a do – good group for the community. We plan on raffling off the bikes in school at no cost. Any kid that wants a chance at a bike puts their name in for the raffle. We have also picked up 40 sets of X country skis and boots from the school for $350. Mostly new condition again and mostly kids sizes. We will somehow tie in skiing with our ice fishing event somehow or combine with a county ski inn event. We will hold a meeting/pizza party in early December. Good things from the northwoods!

Johnny Johnson from Florence Wisconsin