I'm so happy to see this happening!

About 10 years ago, I got involved with two local paddlers, James Stapleton & Rick Owens, and a local pastor in an effort to get kids interested in the Russell Fork. They had received a grant from Kentucky's Water Watch program to pay young people to clean the river banks and learn about clean water.

The program lasted two summers, then the money ran out, the pastor moved on (as did Rick), and the program quietly went away.

For the last couple of years, I've been playing with the idea of a program such as PaddleforYourLife here in Elkhorn City. We have terrible problems of unemployment, drugs, and outflight...and we have very few local youth on the Russell Fork.

Now I'm about to be unemployed (I've been working in the non-profit arena the last 10 years) and I'm ready to seriously make this happen. I've written (and won) several fairly large grant proposals, but none that would address this specific arena.

Any feedback or advice on places to turn would be very much appreciated!!!
steve ruth