Peter makes a very good point. There was an organization in a Economic - Upper Middle and Upper Class community that targeted "At Risk Youth". These kids were at risk for: drugs, gangs, violence, etc. JoAnn and I along with a lot of other people volunteered evenings to open the club up as a safe haven for the kids in the community. It was amazing that many of their parents just didn't care what they were doing. Observation - Culture, Race and Economic status did not seem to matter. Some of the kids just had more money to get into trouble with. Example: Two Kids (Gang Members) arrested transporting Cocaine for sale in Daddy's Lexus 400 - Car Confiscated and Kids Now Felons. Someone made a point that sea kayaking does not need to be expensive. He went on to say that he had made much of the equipment at a very low cost (Forgive me, I can't remember who and I deleted as I read this morning.) so his family could all participate. Combine the two and you have an excellent program for any one who might be interested in learning to sea kayak. Think of the pride of accomplishment that these people would experience in addition to the new skills gained and history learned. I believe that I would have been far better off building my first kayak rather than swapping my touring bike for one that I knew nothing about. Fred At 03:23 PM 9/27/2000 -0700, Peter A. Chopelas wrote: >Perhaps some of the clubs in the large cities could start making efforts to >attract these minorities, like coordinating lessons or beginner paddles >with inner city rec. departments, posting flyers inviting kids and their >families from these neighborhoods to meetings and events. And by all >means, make them feel welcome! > >Peter *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sat Sep 30 2000 - 08:57:39 PDT
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