Kids learn fishing, shooting, bird banding at 'Day on the Wildside'

PORT CLINTON — Tim White has been shooting a bow for more than half a century.

He's come to the annual "Day on the Wildside" event for seven years to pass his archery knowledge on to younger generations.

Thursday, the Ottawa Soil and Water Conservation District partnered with various local and state nature organizations to host the “Day on the Wildside” event at Winous Point Marsh Conservancy.

Around 60 fifth through eighth students participated in the event.

Becky Simpson, along with her husband, John Simpson, who is the director of the Winous Point Marsh Conservancy, have both played major roles in organizing this event since it first started back in 2010.

Since it was first created, the event has struck close to home for John Simpson.

“I grew up in the outdoors and I had a lot of experience with that and honestly that led to the beginning of my career and what I’m doing now. I love getting other kids enthused about that,” he said.

Ever since it was established in 1856, Winous Point Shooting Club has valued wildlife conservation and the maintaining of Lake Erie’s native coastal marshes.

While the grounds are not always open to the public, Winous Point often hosts conservation researchers, students and events.

Around the conservancy on Thursday, activity stations were set up and run by volunteers.

These activities included archery, shooting, bird banding, a punt boat ride, and fishing.

To ensure each kid experienced every station, five groups of 12 were created and led by a handful of volunteers.

Every 45 minutes, the groups would switch to a different station.

Each activity station was run by volunteers, like White, who had expertise and experience with their activity.

Whenever a new group went to the archery station, White would take the time to teach the kids how to properly hold, anchor, and shoot a bow before letting them try to hit targets 15 feet away.

No pressure was placed on having each kid hit a target before the 45 minutes were up.

It was stressed that they were only meant to have fun without worrying about skill levels.

An emphasis was placed on having the kids gain hands-on experience.

“One of our biggest goals is to get kids to learn firsthand experiences outside so that they take a value of why we have areas like this [Winous Point].” Becky Simpson, an environmental educator from the Ottawa Soil and Water Conservation District, said. “If they learn how to fish or hunt and they take value out of these natural resources, maybe they want to protect them when they get older.”

She said that Ottawa Soil and Water wanted to keep its registration numbers at a maximum limit of 60 kids.

“We want to stick small because of all the different topics and things we do. We feel like [groups of] 12 is possible for what we want to accomplish,” she said.

This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: 'Day on the Wildside' introduces kids to shooting, fishing, archery