With the help of Outdoor Buddies, Colorado Youth Outdoors is opening its fall Day CORE class, from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, from August 8–November 9, to all 6th to 12th graders. Outdoor Buddies will provide personalized, adaptive equipment needed for either the child or adult to enjoy the outdoors while strengthening relationships with each other and the outdoors.
Colorado Youth Outdoors, 4927 E. County Road 36 in Fort Collins, is a place where parents and teens can spend quality time together while shooting a bow, taking down targets, or casting a line. Outdoor Buddies and CYO will work together with registrants to meet their individual needs.
“The partnership with CYO is exciting – everyone benefits from a day spent learning to participate, appreciate, communicate or dedicate yourself,” said Larry Sanford, president of Outdoor Buddies, who is also an instructor at Day CORE. “We all need that. Each of us benefit from getting outdoors and learning some new skills.”
Ken Brink, CYO’s lead instructor of the Day CORE class, shared “Having Larry and Outdoor Buddies on the team opens a new set of options to the Day CORE program. Larry’s optimism and experience makes us feel like we can do amazing things to include people with special needs.”
This is the first year that CYO partnered with Outdoor Buddies, explained Courtney Strouse, programming director for CYO. “Outdoor Buddies helps CYO reach a new demographic of our community that we have not previously been able to serve on a broad scale. We hope that through this partnership, we will be able to reach people who never thought they could engage in traditional outdoor recreation due to physical or mental barriers.”
Sanford, who lost an arm in an electrical accident which changed the trajectory of his life, said “Not everyone has an advocate. Outdoor Buddies wants to reach as many folks as possible and be there for them. Folks with disabilities or degenerative diseases have to constantly adapt to the world. If they can enjoy a new activity without reinventing the wheel, it’s a pretty cool feeling. This is programming with a purpose for people of all abilities.”
In addition to the CORE Day class partnership with Outdoor Buddies, CYO also offers CORE evening classes from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays from August 8-November 9.
Learn more or register at coloradoyo.org or call 970-663-0800.
Colorado Youth Outdoors is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that was created in 2001. CYO’s mission is to build relationships and bring kids and parents closer through traditional outdoor recreation. To help accomplish this, CYO integrates the words Participate, Appreciate, Communicate, and Dedicate into their recreation curriculum, which they call the PACD Model. The nonprofit works to incorporate PACD into all activities, which include spin and fly fishing, archery, camping, shooting sports, and nature play. coloradoyo.org
Outdoor Buddies is an all-volunteer nonprofit organization that specializes in making the outdoors accessible to people of all abilities. It focuses on helping mobility-disabled, at-risk youth, veterans and their families with outdoor experiences. outdoorbuddies.org
