KAMO – July, 2025 Newsletter – 4 pages
For comments related to this document, contact Mike

President?s message – Hello friends and members of KAMO,
This is Kids And Mentors Outdoors president Mark Walters with my monthly report. For myself, I was in Montana and Idaho exploring and learning the last 2 weeks with my 24 year old daughter Selina and we had a great time.
As far as KAMO goes, we are continuing to roll forward, as you will see when you read the chapter reports and that is what our goal has been since day 1. I would like to remind every member to please sell your raffle tickets and make sure they are turned in by our September 8th deadline.
On September 8th we will also hold what has become a multiple chapter meeting at Upham Nature Center in Wisconsin Dells which for the main part covers the upcoming Joe Hunt in December.
On the raffle tickets, Mike Brown recently bought up an important point. We are spending more money in a year’s time than we are taking in. I was not aware of this but would like to ask all KAMO friends and members to think about this as we plow forward and I am confident that
it will never become an issue on my watch.
As always, thank you for everything that you do for KAMO!
Mark
Raffle Tickets – Will be gathered and drawn at this year?s Joe Hunt planning meeting. September 8th at UpHam Woods.

Message from Greg Pahl:
If any one is interested we are still looking for volunteers for the WWA Hunter’s Expo on behalf of KAMO. Volunteer dates and times: Fri – 12-4. Sat – 8-1 or 12-5. Free admission, free parking, voucher for a meal, and send me your size and receive a free shirt. Contact me at 920 318-6633 or greg.pahl4456@gmail.com. This Expo is from noon to 6:00 pm August 22nd and 8:00 am – 4:00 pm at the Sunnyview Expo Center, 500 East County Road Y, Oshkosh.
This is a great opportunity for KAMO exposure state wide!

Facebook – We agreed at the state convention to have a person designated to add narrative and pictures to the state KAMO website. This re-ignition of the Facebook page has been going on since late spring/ early summer. There is evidence that more people are visiting the page and sharing the information since we have increased the postings..
Speaking for myself, it has taken years of keeping in mind how important picture taking is to actually do it. I often ask others at the outing to try to take pictures and send them to me. These collected pictures then need to be consolidated and preserved somehow.
Another person might not be as interested in collecting all the pictures, but is inclined to send the pictures directly to our person via text along with a few descriptive words. That is probably the easiest thing to do.
How are we going to find material to the state Facebook page during months that are slower? Perhaps looking back into old pictures we have saved and sending those out to our person in January – April might be helpful. I will dig into the website this winter and send material off there.

Chapter Reports

Baraboo – The Baraboo River Chapter of KAMO held our monthly meeting on July 14th at Upham Woods Outdoor Learning Center. Our Chapter reported 514 hours of work to get Kids Outdoors in the past month. This may be a record for our Chapter and was led by Dwaine with his fishing trip to Canada. Other activities included our camping trip in June, fishing and hiking.
Our camping trip in late June was a complete success and a couple people said ?perfect?. We were joined by the Dodge County Chapter and had a total of 12 kids (10 boys and 2 girls). The weather was hot but made a great day to hang out at the beach. We took turns riding the tube behind Rick?s boat (highlight for most) and while we were waiting there was kayaking, paddleboarding, swimming and fishing 1 on 1 with Mark Walters in his canoe. We had a picnic at the beach shelter and set up a portable awning to provide shade. In the evening we played bean bags and Dodge County put on a Bingo game that everyone won something. We finished the evening with Dutch Oven cobbler on the campfire topped with ice cream. Mark had a very nice write up about this campout in his weekly ?Outdoorsman?s Journal?. We have already made reservations for the same campsites for June 26?28th 2026.
We held a discussion about KAMO hosting an ATV Safety class and this may be a possibility in the winter months at Upham Woods?Thanks to Craig for becoming Certified. Rich sent out a reminder that we do have some KAMO decals for clothing held at Absolute Imprint and looking at best uses for them.
We handed out the remaining raffle tickets to our group and want to remind everyone that we will be holding the raffle ticket drawing on Monday September 8th during our monthly meeting at Upham Woods Outdoor Learning Center. All mentors need to sell their allotment and if having difficulty selling, then bring to the August meeting for others to help. We want to ensure that all tickets are sold. The September 8th meeting will also be our Joe Hunt organization meeting and invite all other chapters to join us. If your Chapter is participating in the Joe Hunt it would be nice to send at least 1 mentor to this meeting. In our early discussions it was determined that we will need a Medic and some cooking help during the Joe Hunt this year. A few mentors and past helpers are not available on those dates?December 12th?14th.
The next meeting will be Monday August 11th at AJ?s Campfire located at 917 Gillette Lane in Wisconsin Dells. Thanks

Greg Wagner

Coulee – Six members met on the evening of July 10th to plan for some upcoming outings – the pontoon event coming up on July 29th, responding to requests from two other groups for fishing assistance that are both in August, having a pigeon shoot, and looking ahead to fall hunting..
Three mentors went to help the Friends of the Upper Mississippi River group at the July 12th Youth Outdoor Festival at the Pettibone Park. Two mentors helped run their fish painting station. We set up an informational booth at YOF and got quite a bit of interest, especially from a homeschool group. Many people recorded our QR code and were given directions on how to get to the chapter page.
Coulee had its annual pontoon rides off the Clinton Street Landings on French Island. Sixty eight people came in for rides; 13 of these were from the homeschool group that learned about KAMO only 3 days prior at the Youth Outdoor Fest. We had a pontoon driver appreciation gathering at the Robin?s Nest, also on French Island, on the 22nd.
We have been hearing from members of the homeschool group contacted during the Y.O.F. ever since about potential things we could do with their kids. A member of a second homeschool group, a daughter of one of our volunteers, asked if we could put a bird event together for their kids. This homeschool connection has been mentioned before as a valuable source of interested participants. This is becoming more true from year to year – homeschooling is growing in popularity. Having a table at a youth festival – handing out schedules of upcoming activities and having our QR code on the schedule and brochure drew some interest.
Dodge – DCC KAMO has been busy and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. We did get a treasurer for our chapter, welcome Val. Another hunters safety class is in progress and we are also having a deer recovery clinic open to the public on August 3rd @9.00 am at the Beaver Dam Conservation club. ( Hwy G just outside Beaver Dam. ) Still looking for more help for the WWA Expo youth building. Contact Greg Pahl if interested 920-318-6633. National night out will be big again and we are doing 2 locations this year. Summer is almost over, get a kid outside and see what happens.

Jim Braker Pres.

Meadow Valley – Hello from the Meadow Valley Chapter
Things are progressing well with the learn to hunt bear, baits are very active.
Raffle tickets are selling well.
Meadow Valley is working with Mathews Archery and has provided two youths with bows and accessories.
Thanks, and have a great summer – Jim

Northwoods – Hello from the Northwoods,
We held our annual Hooked on Fishing event last Saturday, 19 kids came out for the steamy day. We also had several kids sign up for the bicycle give-away there. We will have a meeting in early August to discuss how many pheasants to order for the October trap/ bird shoot. Our next event is new and will be on September 6 th with the UP Prop busters RC Airplane group and we are looking forward to it. Currently we have about 80 % of our raffle tickets sold.
Good things from up North
Johnny Johnson from Florence, WI