Outdoor Parents, Outdoor Kids Reviewed by Denver Post

In keeping with the ethos of June being National Get Outdoors Month, the Denver Post devoted a substantial portion of its Father’s Day coverage on Sunday, June 19, to reviewing Eugene Buchanan’s award-winning book Outdoor Parents, Outdoor Kids, which benefits the Outdoor Foundation’s efforts to grow youth participation in the outdoors…

The review, written by father-of-two Jason Blevins, coincides with June’s National Get Outdoors Month, including such events as National Trails Day and the Great American Backyard Campout.

“Buchanan — a magazine editor who grew up in Boulder — details just how a dad can keep the outdoor flames burning while instilling that same fire in his brood,” writes Blevins. “He still gets out there as much as he ever did, only now his companions are smaller and snackier…”

For more on the review, visit: http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_18295094

Further supporting its timeliness and topical message, Outdoor Parents, Outdoor Kids also recently won the Gold Medal in the Family (Parenting/Health/Safety) category from the Living Now Book Awards, recognizing Books for Better Living.

Celebrating new books that enhance the quality of life in categories ranging from cooking to parenting, the awards are designed to promote new tomes that help readers enrich their lives in wholesome, Earth-friendly ways.

“Great books help us imagine change and give us the knowledge we need to make change happen,” says awards director Jim Barnes. “They’re necessary to inform and inspire us to keep ourselves and the Earth healthy – today, and for future generations. These books will help people to find a balance with the natural world around them.”

The book’s premise – released while President Obama hosted the first-ever White House Conference on America’s Great Outdoors, encouraging families to spend more time outside – is that the game is on to get kids off GameBoy and into the great outdoors. Childhood obesity rates have tripled in the past 30 years, affecting a third of our nation’s children and costing the U.S. $150 billion every year.

Participation numbers are equally disheartening. The Outdoor Foundation reports that youth participation in outdoor recreation has dropped nearly 17 percent over the last three years. It also finds that most youth are introduced to outdoor activities through their families. “Sadly, fewer youth are heading outdoors each year,” says the Foundation’s executive director Christine Fanning. “Reconnecting youth with the outdoors is critical to the health of future generations and our natural landscapes.”

Benefiting the Outdoor Foundation’s efforts to grow youth participation in outdoor recreation, the book extends parents a set of training wheels in getting their kids active outside. Richard Louv, author of best-selling Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, calls it “An excellent beginner’s guide to help parents instill in their kids a love of outdoor activities.” Carol Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, calls it “an important contribution to the work of connecting our children to the outdoors.” And award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns says, “Nowadays, too many of us, especially our children, suffer from a Nature deficit. This wonderful book will go a long way toward remedying that.”