CAPE ELIZABETH (AP) – Olympic gold medalists Seth Wescott and Joan Benoit Samuelson have teamed up with Gov. John Baldacci to promote efforts to encourage Maine youngsters to turn off their televisions, set aside their video games and spend more time in the great outdoors.
“We don’t have to fly to Disneyland. We have Disneyland all around us,” Baldacci said of Maine’s woods and waterways, as he met with reporters Tuesday at Two Lights State Park to kick off his “Take It Outside!” initiative.
The purpose of the campaign is to spur government agencies and outdoor organizations to develop ways to get youngsters to overcome inactivity and spend more time outside. A Blaine House Conference on Youth and the Natural World will be held next spring.
State agencies will seek about $250,000 in grants to fund the best proposals, Conservation Commissioner Pat McGowan said. “It’s going to take money,” McGowan said. “And it will not come from the General Fund.”
The campaign was inspired by Richard Louv’s book, “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-deficit Disorder,” which focuses on how young people today are disconnected from nature.
Acadia National Park Superintendent Sheridan Steele said the success of the initiative could be measured by monitoring park fees for children and sales of youth sporting equipment.
“My message is not to get people to Acadia, even though the attendance numbers at Acadia have been going down. My message is just to get kids outside,” Steele said.
Benoit Samuelson, who grew up in Cape Elizabeth and founded the Beach to Beacon Road Race, said promoting outdoor activities can help curb the rise of obesity and diabetes.
Wescott said his success in the 2006 Olympics was an outgrowth of his ongoing love of “playing in Maine,” surfing, mountain biking and, of course, snowboarding.
Wescott said one of the few times he watched television as a child was when his father took the television out of the attic in 1984 to view Benoit Samuelson’s Olympic marathon victory.
“When the closing ceremonies for that Olympics were done,” Wescott said, “the TV was packed back in a box, and the box was put back in the attic.”
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Information from: Portland Press Herald, http://www.pressherald.com
AP-ES-08-01-07 0952EDT
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