Governor Beebe's weekly column and radio address: Leading the Next Generation in Outdoor Education
This week, I had the honor of announcing the appointment of Ron Duncan to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. Many people across the State are already aware of Ron's incredible work, especially those in his hometown of Springdale.
In 1982, Ron created a fishing club at Springdale Central Junior High School, which he still leads today and where he served first as a civics teacher and now is a student counselor. In those 26 years, Ron has introduced thousands of young Arkansans to the joys of fishing and an appreciation for the great outdoors. In fact, his club became the model for the national "Hooked on Fishing, Not on Drugs," a program that has engendered thousands of similar clubs around the country.
Those are the facts; now let me tell you what I've learned about Ron since we began this process: Ron Duncan's passion for the outdoors and his enthusiasm for teaching kids are an inspiration to those who know him and have seen him in action. His work with the Fishing Club has been a true labor of love and it has changed lives. He understands that exposure to the outdoors and a connection to the natural world can have a lasting and profound influence on our children.
The stories of the lives he has touched are too numerous to enumerate here, but one stands out from the rest. When Ron was renewing his driver's license a few years ago, he was recognized by a woman at the counter. Her son had been in the Fishing Club, and he liked it so much that it inspired his father to take him fishing as often as he could. Tragically, the boy's father died unexpectedly. He became very depressed, but his mother insisted that, because he had fishing to fall back on, he was able to cope better with his loss, continue his education, and finish high school.
A close connection with the outdoors used to be routine for Arkansans. But urbanization and the mechanization of agriculture are slowly changing that relationship. The majority of Arkansas's children are now three generations removed from life on the farm, and many have little time to enjoy the pleasures of the natural world.
For hundreds of years, outdoor recreation in this State has been dominated by fishing and hunting activities, and while Arkansas's sporting traditions will never completely disappear, we are seeing many of the same declines in participation in these areas that affect other states around the country.
The danger in this changing relationship to the natural world is that it comes at a time when our environment needs our attention. We need every generation, but especially our youngest, to renew that connection to our heritage and be invigorated by it - to realize that Arkansas's natural beauty and bounty are worth fighting for and must be preserved.
Ron Duncan is an expert in reaching children with that message, and he knows its value as well as anyone I've ever met. I'm counting on him to continue his life's work as my appointee to the Game and Fish Commission, and I believe he'll make us all proud.