LE ROY — The Kansas First Upland Pioneers hosted its fourth annual “Women in the Outdoors” event on Saturday outside of Le Roy.
The local Kansas National Wild Turkey Federation hosted 47 women from the area for the day.
One of the highlights of the day was a seminar by “The First Lady of Hunting” Brenda Valentine. Valentine is an award-winning television personality and author.
Valentine’s message to the women was simple and one that she believes all men and women would benefit from implementing.
She encouraged her audience to continue to try new things. Whether it is hunting, fishing, hiking or even if it has nothing to do with the outdoors at all, Valentine encouraged the women to step out of their comfort zone and not be afraid to give something new a try.
Valentine stressed that sometimes women don’t feel comfortable going out and doing many of the outdoor activities that were featured at the event, because they don’t see many other women participating in them, but that shouldn’t be a deterrent and oftentimes women are extremely successful at hunting and fishing due to their patient dispositions.
Event organizer Jennifer Foster, the Kansas State Women in the Outdoors coordinator, echoed Valentine’s sentiments.
“The whole point in us doing this and the reason we started it four years ago and the reason it continues to be successful is because a lot of times, everyone is worried about getting our kids out of the house and involved,” Foster said. “My purpose for this is to get women out and involved, too. If you get women out and they are involved in being in the outdoors and not sitting at home, then they will be more likely to get their kids out and doing those things too.
“It is really a thing for all generations. It will just trickle down.”
The day included a trap range, a hand gun range, a chukar shoot, a rifle range, a 3-D archery range, fly fishing, a muzzleloader range, a Dutch oven cooking class, a duck hunting decoy setup lesson, a class on shooting from a duck blind, an introduction to turkey calling and a self defense course.
All ages were welcome to come and pick up some new skills.
“We have a lot of grandmothers that I know of in the Iola area that are raising their grandchildren and don’t know what to do with them and can’t really relate,” Foster said. “So if grandma can come out here and have fun in the outdoors and learn how to do things, then she will be more likely to take them fishing and get them into the outdoors.”
Women take aim, fly high at National Wild Turkey outing
