Get Outdoors and Enjoy Maine’s Natural Wonders

September 28-30, 2012

Remember the first time as a kid when you went target shooting, hunting, fishing, hiking, camping or boating with your family? The woods were alive, the fish were jumping, and there were so many things to see and learn.

You probably have vivid memories outdoors with your dad, uncle or brother – even more vivid than how many targets you hit, the wildlife you saw or the fish you caught, and certainly more vivid than the last TV show you watched.

Our need for outdoor activities with family and friends is more important than ever.

The Great Maine Outdoor Weekend is a series of events presented by outdoor organizations and businesses from all across Maine to celebrate the how, where, and what of being active outdoors in Maine. The goal is to connect friends and neighbors with the natural world, to promote fun, physical activity, and good health.

More than 70 introductory activities are planned throughout the entire state of Maine, covering all counties. There are chances to canoe, camp, bird-watch, kayak, bike and take part in easy hikes and fun family activities. Many activities are free or low cost.

To find an event near you, visit http://greatmaineoutdoorweekend.org/events/upcoming/

Keystone Arms Cricket Rifle

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) has donated five Keystone Arms “Cricket Rifles” for use in the youth portion of our “First Steps Outdoors” program. Cricket Rifles are small 22 caliber target rifles perfectly sized for kids.

The Sporting Camp “First Steps Outdoors” program provides an opportunity for families and their children, as well as couples and single adults, to experience their first steps into Maine’s sporting traditions during a two night stay at a traditional Maine Sporting Camp.

The goal is simple – to encourage sportsmen and women to ask family members, friends and neighbors to take their “First Steps Outdoors” and experience all the joys that Maine’s sporting traditions offer – Joys that have formed our “Sporting Heritage.”

The National Shooting Sports Foundation supports our mission to help bring more youths into traditional outdoor sports like shooting and hunting, and to preserve places where sportsmen can enjoy participating in these activities — like at Maine’s sporting camps. Programs like “First Steps Outdoors” introduce youths to these traditional sports, and to the conservation movement that sportsmen have led and paid for for one hundred years.

Thanks for your support!

We are happy to have Dick Walthers join us as our fly fishing intructor at the “Sporting Camp First Steps Outdoors” program to be help on August 3-5 at Tim Pond Camps.

Dick is president of the Mollyocket Chapter of Trout Unlimited in Maine, a registered Master Maine Guide, member of the Maine Wilderness Guides Organization, and a Life member of the Maine Proffesional Guides Association. Dick has served on the State’s Allagash Wilderness Waterway Advisory Council, guided for Rapid River Fly Fishing and for Sun Valley Sports.

Dick has fished most of Maine’s wild trout waters, from Rangeley to Fort Kent, and has been very active in protecting Maine’s remaining wild brook trout populations.

His current guiding activity is mostly fly fishing instruction. He retired as General Manager BJ’s in Portland, was recently married and together with his new wife Cecil has 6 children, 13 grandchildren and 2 labradors. They live at Honeymoose Farm in Otisfield, Maine.

Come join us at Tim Pond Camps for an experience you will treasure for life. Visit our First Steps Outside webpage  for program details and reservation information.

Our Board recently spent a day in Connecticut  with the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s (NSSF) program development staff to discuss developing several joint programs. The NSSF staff shared their abundant knowledge and research with us, and offered their continued support. Our common goal is to preserve traditional outdoor recreation like hunting, and the opportunities for public access to areas where this tradition may be enjoyed by all.

It has been long in coming, but we have received the official letter from the IRS granting full approval of the Maine Sporting Camp Heritage Foundation as a 501(c)3 public charity as of December 2009!

The IRS has accepted all the activities we said we would be involved in. Among them are:

• Owning the land under a sporting camp and providing the camp owner with a long term lease — thereby allowing the owners to obtain commercial financing, invest in long term capital improvements, and even to facilitate ownership changes
• Owning or otherwise conserving the broader landscape around a sporting camp
• Providing business, marketing and economic assistance to sporting camps
• Re-establishing closed and private sporting camps as businesses open to serve public demand and help re-establish the industry’s critical mass and public awareness
• Providing grants for training, business assistance, and preservation of historically significant cabins and structures
• Providing grants and assistance for developing new recreational resources, like trails and wildlife observation blinds
• Providing grants and assistance to enhance habitats and populations of important animal, fish and plant species vital to sporting camps.
• Using sporting camps to preserve Maine’s sporting heritage, hunting & fishing opportunities and to introduce new participants to these activities

We have prevailed over IRS’ claims that owning, operating and even conserving land around a sporting camp would not constitute a charitable purpose. Should the IRS have prevailed, it might have put into jeopardy the activities of other Maine organizations that currently own, build or operate sporting camps, such as the Appalachian Mountain Club, Chewonki, Maine Huts & Trails, and Eliotsville Plantation. The IRS also made similar claims about many organizations that conserve farms and ranch lands in order to allow those families to preserve their way of life — their “heritage.”

The Maine Sporting Camp Heritage Foundation may now proceed with confidence that our plans for using land ownership and conservation as a small business and economic development asset will be in compliance with IRS rules, and therefore our potential donors may also have this confidence.

Donors: Please contact us should you need a copy of the IRS’ Determination Letter.

The Maine Sporting Camp Heritage Foundation is preparing to launch its new website. You can now view a great deal of information about us and our programs, although much editing will be taking place as our volunteers work on the content.

We ask for your support in this effort, and will appreciate any photographs you might send us.

We especially need photos of:

• Sporting Camps
• Historic Cabins
• Historic Sporting Camp Postcards
• Unique scenery, habitat and wildlife

All donations are appreciated, and all donors of either photographs or funds will be recognized on our Sponsors page.  Remember, donations are deductible as charitable donations for income tax purposes.