New book promotes, benefits Outdoor Foundation mission

The Outdoor Foundation has partnered with Heliconia Press on the upcoming release of Eugene Buchanan’s Outdoor Parents, Outdoor Kids: A Guide to Getting Your Kids Active in the Great Outdoors – helping promote the book while raising funds for youth outdoor programs. Heliconia Press will donate a percentage of sales to The Outdoor Foundation which will grant funds to successful youth programs.
Publicity for the book begins at the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market in Salt Lake City, Jan. 20 – 24. In addition to drumming up sales for the book, Buchanan and publisher Heliconia Press are hoping to enlist the support of outdoor industry manufacturers in promoting the book’s core mission, to help get more kids outdoors. On the night of Jan. 20, advance copies of the book will be available to all attendees at an exclusive industry networking event hosted by The Outdoor Foundation and the Economic Development Corporation of Utah. “Outdoor Nation, An Exclusive Outsiders Event” will be held form 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake City. Next up there will be book signings with the author during the trade show at the Salt Palace Convention Center. Big Agnes will host Buchanan on Thursday and Friday, Jan. 21 and 22, from 4 – 5 p.m. at booth # 28043; Kelty will host Buchanan on Friday from 2:30 – 3:30 at booth #28207
With nature deficit disorder and child obesity problems rising, the book’s timing is perfect. Scheduled for release in March 2010, it presents a valuable resource for parents looking to get their kids outdoors, with Buchanan sharing insights through entertaining stories of his family’s outdoor trials and triumphs. It’s also received a solid line-up of endorsements from the likes of Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope, Richard Louv (author of best-selling Last Child in the Woods), filmmaker Ken Burns, U.S. Senator Mark Udall, Royal Robbins, OIA Executive Director Frank Hugelmeyer, American Recreation Coalition President Derrick Crandall, Men’s Journal, Outside magazine, and more.
Long a fixture in the outdoor industry, Buchanan — whose first book, Brothers on the Bashkaus, was released by Fulcrum Press in 2007, and who previously spearheaded the Outdoor Foundation’s Outdoor Idols program — has been writing about the outdoors for more than 25 years with articles in the New York Times, ESPN.com, National Geographic Adventure, Outside, Sports Afield, Men’s Journal and other magazines. For more information, visit www.outdoorkidsbook.com.