Red Robin,
the Provider Pal organization takes a rancher, a logger, a miner, a farmer and a fisherman into big city schools to teach kids about where there stuff comes from. I am one of the ranchers. Each year a school adopts us, we send them emails about our way of life, answer questions they have and try to show them that people in our professions do not rape the land, ruin the environment, basically we try to correct the garbage they are fed by PETA, TNC and all of the enviros. Then towards the end of the school year we go to their school and meet them, then they have a face to put with our way of thinking, not what the read in their weekly reader. Ford Motor Company has granted us 2 million a year for the last five years to run the program. We are now in over 35 cities and it is growing so fast that we need more sponsors and more providers. This year we expanded into Vancouver BC and Seattle, I think next year we are even going into South Dakota and North Carolina. I have been involved for four years. That is why I am going to Little Rock. A lot of the schools that want us are the inner city schools, the one I was adopted by in DC had bars on the windows, a metal detector at the main door and guards at the end of every hall. I talked to one white kid out of about 150 and if you don't think I knew what a minority was at that school! I probably learn more about their way of life than they learn about mine, but that is the point, cultural exchange. I know where I can get more providers, right off of ranchers net there is a bunch, we need to get more sponsors. BTW, First Lady Laura Bush gave us a "Preserving American Heritage Award" and held a fund raiser for us last year in DC. That helped a bunch. For more, go to www.Providerpals.com it tells more.
Hey JB, I am not a wuss, if she wants to go do fences while I'm gone, more power to me. :wink: