SNEWS® Live: Conservation Fund speaker challenges OIA breakfast attendees to take action in getting kids involved in outdoor recreation

Larry Selzer, president of the Conservation Fund, addressed the Outdoor Industry Association's bi-annual breakfast meeting and championed efforts to get kids involved in outdoor recreation.



SNEWS® Live: Getting kids outside is one of the most pressing issues facing the outdoor industry today. The social ramifications of childhood obesity, youth violence and teen drug use not withstanding, companies that rely on outdoor recreation might one day run out of customers. Too few children are playing in the great outdoors. If many of today's young people grow to adulthood without having embraced the life-affirming benefit of wild places, organizations that work to protect the recreational resources of the natural environment could lose an entire generation of potential advocates.

At Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2008 in Salt Lake City, Utah, the breakfast meeting of the Outdoor Industry Association welcomed a prominent speaker to provide some answers to the question: How do we inspire children to head outside? Larry Selzer, president of the Conservation Fund, a wildlife preservation group based in Arlington, Va., addressed the crowd to advocate a simple, but profound message. "Saving a generation is not a spectator sport," he said to those gathered, "and you, especially you, cannot afford to sit this one out."

SNEWS® Live was there at the Marriot Hotel ballroom with tape rolling to bring you Selzer's presentation.