Nebraskaland

Nebraskaland • The Nebraska Game and Parks Foundation ore values. The Nebraska Game and Parks has many. Access. Opportunity. Stewardship. Providing opportunities for hunting, fi shing, hiking, biking, camping and outdoor education and recreation. They have an economic value of $3.8 billion in our state. These activities are the backbone of introducing Nebraskans, and visitors alike, to the outdoors and keeping them outdoors, and the Nebraska Game and Parks Foundation is a central fi gure in each of these. Established in 1983, the vision for the Nebraska Game and Parks Foundation was to take the work by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission to the next level, enhancing a myriad of projects when limited state funds could not. But it's not just completing the projects that's important. It's the value of these projects to those whom we serve — the public — when the value of the Foundation's contributions are seen in moments and memories. Here are some of their stories. We're Staying Here Forever Tucker Urbanovsky, of Arnold, loves to fi sh. Always has. His parents think he always will. Admittedly, that might be hard to say, as Tucker is only 4 years old, but his relationship with the outdoors only continues to grow, so his parents seem to think this is a safe assumption. "No," he told his parents on a recent fi shing and camping trip. "I'm not leaving. We're staying here forever." "He asks to go fi shing all the time," said his mom, Tori. One of Tucker's fi rst introductions to the outdoors was the Fort Kearny Outdoor Expo when he was 6 months old. In the Urbanovsky family archive, there is a photo with him holding a fi shing pole. At this young age, he has already picked out his favorite quarry, channel catfi sh, and has no problem touching the fi sh, de-hooking the fi sh and eating a fi sh nugget or two his dad, Brent, fries after their good fortune. When he's not fi shing, he's watching coyote hunting videos with his dad and hoping to go on his fi rst coyote hunt, like his 8-year-old sister, Daneo, and 7-year-old brother, Will, have done. So with these three nature kids — as well as 2-year-old Sunny and 7-month-old Eva, Tori took it upon herself to apply for a half-price youth lifetime permit anytime she could. "We get emails [from the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission] about the drawings, and I enter them all," she said. Recently, her persistence worked out when Tucker received a half-price youth lifetime permit. This is where the Nebraska Game and Parks Foundation comes in. The Foundation established the half-price Youth Lifetime Permit program in 2006 by creating an endowment to introduce and even re-engage kids to the outdoors. Drawings for Nebraska youth 15 and younger are held throughout the state at partner events, public events and online, as seen with the Urbanovsky family. Winners of these drawings can purchase a lifetime hunting and fi shing permit for half price, with the Foundation funding the other half. Since the program began, the Foundation has provided funds for more than 9,000 lifetime permits like Tucker's, and Tori certainly won't stop fi lling out entry forms for the rest of the kids in their family anytime soon — just as the Foundation wants it. Five Quilters and a Wayward Scrapbooker If you walk into the Bison mini-lodge at Ponca State Park when Sarah Johnson, of Geneva, and her quilting friends and family are visiting, it's hard not to notice the unique furniture arrangement. Couches, chairs and tables are pushed against the wall replaced by a line of working tables — each topped with sewing machines and cutting mats. Since 2006, Johnson's group — coming from Syracuse and Geneva, Nebraska, to Rapid City, South Dakota, and all parts in between — has taken up temporary residence at one of the cabins at Eugene T. Mahoney State Park or, most recently, one of the mini-lodges at Ponca State Park. "The same six of us go every year," said Johnson. "This year, I was sitting at my computer at 12 a.m. on the fi rst day the lodge was available at Ponca so I could get our reservation. We C The Urbanovsky family from Arnold puts their kids' names in for a chance to win a lifetime hunt/fi sh permit every year. This year, their 4-year-old son, Tucker, won the permit. JULIE GEISER, NEBRASKALAND y, channel em touching the fi sh, ti fi h t t hi d d

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