By Matt DeLozier, 2013 (Alamo Area Chapter – San Antonio)
Our Tribe’s Fortune – 500 Hour Pin Recipient (Hard in good times but “Wow” in a pandemic!)
Most of my service comes from working with Texas Parks and Wildlife, which is how I was introduced to the program in the first place. If any park reaches out for assistance (no matter how far away) I will usually find a way to help – teach a class, work on trails, pull invasive species, etc. I even designed and installed a geocaching course at a state park that had received some grant funding. I help with the Texas Outdoor Family program where we teach families how to camp. While camping we take them on hikes, fishing, kayaking, geocaching, and sometime mountain biking. We teach them how to take care of nature while having fun in it. I also teach classes in some of the local city parks – geocaching or guided hikes. My wife and I occasionally take kids or families groups out fossil hunting as well. Most of these activities have been on hold the last year so I have been working on some projects from the virtual volunteer fair such as surveying parks and green spaces for Texas Children in Nature and entering them into their website so that families can search on them and find places to visit.
My real passion comes from getting young people to connect with nature and finding activities that help them stay engaged in outdoors.