Thrive Outside OKC: Connecting with the Outdoors During COVID-19

In its first year, The Outdoor Foundation’s Thrive Outside Community Initiative has made multi-year grants to four regions across the country (San Diego, Oklahoma City, Atlanta and Grand Rapids) to build and strengthen networks focused on providing children and families with repeat and reinforcing experiences in the outdoors. Our communities are finding unique ways to positively impact their communities during the COVID-19 crisis.

We’re proud to share the innovative work from our Thrive Outside Oklahoma City Community through one of their leading organizations RIVERSPORT.

 

 

Staying connected to the outdoors right now is challenging. We want to offer families a fun, easy activity that uses everyday items, and we want to tie it into getting more kids and families involved in kayaking and canoeing.

We launched the RIVERSPORT Cardboard Canoe Challenge inviting Thrive Outside partners and families across the community to “think outside the box” and transform household cardboard into canoes of their own design. While some people are building boats large enough get on the water, others are building mini versions to float in their backyard ponds, pools or even bathtubs. The creativity has been impressive!

This can also be a STEM activity for kids. RIVERSPORT is providing online worksheets exploring the concepts of buoyancy, boat design, engineering basics, Newton’s Laws of Motion and boat vocabulary to help parents who are suddenly teaching science and math at home.

This curriculum is part of RIVERSPORT’s SOAR initiative – Success through Outdoor Adventure and Recreation – a collaborative learning adventure that brings together Thrive Outside and STEM education in a teamwork experience. It begins in the classroom where kids divide into teams to build cardboard canoes, then culminates in a field trip to RIVERSPORT where they race and every student has the opportunity to go paddling. Our goal is to offer the experience to every seventh-grader in Oklahoma City metro area Title 1 schools.

Once shelter-in-place restrictions are lifted, RIVERSPORT is planning a community-wide Cardboard Canoe Challenge day as way to celebrate being back on the water. RIVERSPORT is also encouraging other communities to join the Cardboard Canoe Challenge by either launching their own promotion or sharing RIVERSPORT’s. Everyone can use #cardboardcanoe as a way to connect on social media.

For now, the focus is on the fun of spending time with family and staying connected to the outdoors. RIVERSPORT hopes that time spent thinking about and building canoes will encourage families take the next the step and try kayaking or canoeing this summer.

To learn more or download the STEM worksheets, visit riversportokc.org/cardboardcanoe or email info@riversportokc.org.

Elizabeth Laurent
RIVERSPORT

Thrive Outside San Diego: Connecting with the outdoors during COVID-19

In its first year, The Outdoor Foundation’s Thrive Outside Community Initiative has made multi-year grants to four regions across the country (San Diego, Oklahoma City, Atlanta and Grand Rapids) to build and strengthen networks focused on providing children and families with repeat and reinforcing experiences in the outdoors.  Our communities are finding unique ways to positively impact their communities during the COVID-19 crisis.

We’re proud to share the innovative work from our Thrive Outside San Diego Community through one of their leading organizations Outdoor Outreach.

“Our youth need connection now more than ever. In this unprecedented time, young people are especially impacted by a lack of resources, feelings of uncertainty and fear, and separation from supportive role models and peers. This is even more true for the teens we serve, many of whom are affected by poverty, abuse, family dysfunction, and chronic health conditions.

Outdoor Outreach is committed to helping our participants thrive through the COVID-19 crisis. Our programs look different right now, but the focus of our work hasn’t changed: building support systems that help youth face adversity in their lives with strength and courage. Instructors can’t lead group outings in the outdoors, so they’re innovating ways to maintain critical connection with youth including virtual meetings and leadership trainings, live-streamed mindfulness and physical wellness activities, and youth-led community outreach promoting responsible outdoor activities.

Our Leadership Program is a great example. When social distancing measures were implemented just one week into the 12-week program, participants insisted that we shouldn’t cancel or reschedule. They wanted to meet on the phone or through video conferencing to stay connected, share challenges and resources, and provide much needed support for their peers.

For most participants, the Leadership Program is their only extracurricular activity still meeting during the crisis. The teens are combating feelings of social isolation through twice-weekly virtual meetings and learning to safely enjoy outdoor spaces by practicing OO’s 10 Principles of Getting Outside Responsibly During COVID-19. Reporting a new appreciation for little things that nearby nature has to offer–like a cool breeze on their face and time watching the clouds with family–participants have taken leadership in their communities by encouraging friends and family to adopt the same principles and to meet-up virtually instead of in-person. 

I’m proud of our team for helping youth gain a sense of agency over their circumstances and maintain resilience through the COVID-19 crisis. I encourage you to visit our website, follow us on social media, and, if you can, make a gift to support connection for youth who desperately need it.”

Ben McCue
Executive Director
Outdoor Outreach

OIA CALLS FOR 90-DAY DEFERRAL ON TARIFF PAYMENTS: TAKE ACTION TODAY TO HELP

Last week, OIA continued its efforts to secure relief for small outdoor businesses during the COVID-19 outbreak, including an urgent call to the Trump administration to lift all punitive tariffs on outdoor apparel, footwear and equipment sourced from China. We greatly appreciate those who have joined us by sending letters to their congressional representatives in support of this effort.

Now, we are calling on the administration to support a deferral of duty payments on imports for at least 90 days to provide much-needed liquidity to outdoor companies and help them preserve jobs and stay in business. Such action is consistent with the three-month delay on filing of personal and corporate income tax returns which has already been instituted.
TAKE ACTION

Outdoor companies already face import tariffs of about 14 percent, on average, and as high as 37.5 percent. Many outdoor companies are paying punitive tariffs of 10 or 25 percent on top of those on affected products sourced from China. A deferral of tariff payments on imports would help outdoor companies, particularly small businesses, address serious cash-flow issues during this challenging time when retail outlets have closed and manufacturers have shut down due to COVID-19.

Once again, we need your help. Please reach out to your representatives and senators and urge them to Take Action to join OIA and support a deferral on tariff payments for at least 90 days. You action will help outdoor companies get back to what they do best: developing new, innovative outdoor gear to enhance the outdoor experience and get more Americans outdoors.

You can also still contact your congressional representatives and urge them to support lifting punitive tariffs on outdoor products sourced from China.

OIA has taken a series of actions to help outdoor companies manage the COVID-19 outbreak:

  • OIA signed letters organized by the Americans for Free Trade coalition to the president and the House Ways and Means Committee urging the administration to lift all punitive China 301 tariffs.
  • OIA submitted comments to the House Ways and Means Committee outlining the negative impact of the China 301 punitive tariffs on outdoor companies and calling for them to be removed.

We will continue to keep you updated on our advocacy work. In the meantime, join us, Thursday, April 2, at 11:00 a.m. (MT) for an informative webinar presented by Monument Advocacy on how the latest COVID-19 stimulus package will impact outdoor businesses.