A Maverick is someone who takes an independent stand for something they believe in. THE MAVERICK is an event that stands for a cause that we can all support.  The title of this event represents the uniqueness of this exciting three day shoot event held at Sylvan Dale Guest Ranch from May 4^th to May 6^th , 2012.  The title also represents the very spirit of Colorado Youth Outdoors’ mission to strengthen relationships between youth and their parents through traditional outdoor activities.

Friday and Saturday participating team sponsors enjoy all the hospitality and fun the event has become so well known for.  Saturday is the premier day of  The Maverick and includes some fantastic opportunities to promote your organization, thank your clients, or simply enjoy a day of unmatched entertainment with friends, both old and new.

Sunday of The Maverick is for this year’s participants in Colorado Youth Outdoors.  Parents and youth enjoy the course and vie for the state flurry championship.  They then help clean up the ranch bringing an end to a fantastic event that helps fund a cause worth taking a stand for:  families!

Friday Team Sponsor – May 4 … $2500.00

As a Friday Team Sponsor you will receive the opportunity to field a team of 4 for Friday’s Shoot.

Sponsorship includes:

• The use of a team golf cart
• 4 gift packages including Maverick garment with safety glasses and hearing protection
• 100 rounds ammunition for 12 or 20 gauge
• 100 rounds sporting clays
• On course lunch and beverages
• Team Flurry Shoot
• Post shoot Awards and Hors’ d’evours’
• Opportunity to participate in Green Gambler

I hope our first quarter newsletter finds everyone in good spirits.  With so much going on at CYO we are excited to send out our first qrtly newletter  “Relationships”.  This word covers our mission, our method of doing business and our interest in keeping the family of CYO informed.

We hope you enjoy this and future publications.  We are open  to your comments and wishes of that which could be included in this newsletter.  Enjoy the update and as always

Enjoy your families, enjoy our outdoors and God Bless

Bob

Regional Outdoor Education Center Update

Capital Campaign Launched

September 1^st 2011 marks the official date of our Capital Campaign for CYO’s first Regional Outdoor Education Center.  The project begins with the acceptance of a generous property gift from the Louis Swift Estate most commonly referred as Swift Ponds.  Next in line, the acquisition of the remaining land located in the interior of the property  purchased using gift funds from the Gates Frontiers Fund.  From here work really ramped up with the permitting process and Phase I building completion.  In fact with just over 3 Million invested CYO appears to be off and running.  So your question is probably, with so much already taking place why are we just now announcing a Capital Campaign.  Good question and here’s the answer.  With Colorado Youth Outdoors being a relatively new organization we felt the need to demonstrate progress and commitment to the project before formally announcing a campaign.  We divided the complete project into two phases.  Our goal was to complete phase I without a campaign to further test the viability and need of such a facility.  The response was fantastic and now we are on to phase II.

Phase II of the outdoor education facility will include completion of another fishing dock, bathroom and smaller shelter pavilion.  Our trap and archery ranges will also receive a face lift with a 950’ earthen berm surrounding 3 sides of the fields. New buildings include an indoor rim-fire range and a 9,000 sq ft multi -purpose classroom complex.  Phase II includes other large ticket items for infrastructure and upgraded roadways on County Road 34.

The needs for phase II are large but just like phase I we will break up tasks where it makes sense so we can complete details of phase II independent of one another.  Hopefully this plan will allow for construction and completion at a rate that parallels support.  We need to raise a total of Just over 5 million with 3 ½ million of that identified as cash support needs.  For the next two years we will be reporting on progress and hope by keeping everyone in the loop we will identify new support and expand our donor base.

Once just isn’t enough.

The first few weeks of the fall session is a time to get to know the new class and try to connect names with faces.  Some of the names and faces are quite familiar as they are returning CYO participants from last spring or fall.  How cool is that?!  Coming back for more is a testament that the programming is fun, rewarding and best of all a worthy time spent with one another.  Asking several of our returning participants what brought them back and here is what they said.

“We got used to Wednesday evenings being our time together so we just kept it rolling”

“It became clear that we were not going to find another program and facility like this so we just re-upped”

“We wish the program was longer so instead of wishing we just joined again and made it longer”

“Its about the time we get together and if we don’t set up a night we don’t get together, CYO makes this happen for us”

Good stuff gang and for those of you who participated in the early years you knew us as a several year program.  Often we are asked why it isn’t as long as it used to be.  The issue is that with time comes attrition and with attrition there becomes a real challenge to justify programming for so few.  Our answer is exactly what these folks have figures out….you are welcome to participate as many times as you wish.  We promise to always have a new wrinkle or two within each 12 week session.

Wide Interest in using the Outdoor Education Facility

Owning and Operating the Outdoor Education Facility now for 3 years has provided some valuable information for us.  One area of information that we obtain is the broad array of qualified groups using our facility.  In fact over the 3 years CYO has supported over 10,000 guests visiting the property through over 50 different non profits.  Obviously the facility is being constructed for the primary purposes of CYO programming but the fact that this facility has so much more capacity presents CYO with the opportunity to share the gift with so many.

Experiencing such a high interest in use solidifies our passion of how needed these types of facilities are in regions such as this.  In fact, this facility and its opportunity to support the type of programming and activities it does tells us that this just may be a template of success for future facilities in other regions of  the state.  Future facilities like this would definitely enhance the growth of CYO programming in other regions.  One can only imagine the expanded use as more and more of these types of facilities were brought on-line.

We are fortunate to have such a fine facility and the opportunity to share.

Tom Knapp coming to The Maverick

As if the Maverick wasn’t exciting enough!  This year our participants and guests are in for a real treat with the announcement from CZ-SA  their amazing trick shooting host The One The Only Mr. Tom Knapp will be joining all of us for this year’s Maverick.  If you have not seen Tom’s show you have no idea what trick shooting looks like.  History is rich with fantastic marksmen and women such as the great Buffalo Bill Cody, the amazing Annie Oakley and now we get to see the latest in this rich heritage Mr. Tom Knapp.

Tom will be performing for our Saturday guests with the addition of a public venue.  Tickets will be going on sale soon after the new year for the fortunate few who get to attend this awesome show.  Of course this show is included in our team guests package and yes is included in the CYO participant volunteer day.  Wow, Mr. Tom Knapp part of CYO’s fundraiser.  Now even more FUN in our FUNdraising!

Thank you CZ – USA

Adventure Series

The Many Colors of Orange

This story begins and ends with our favorite topic; RELATIONSHIPS.  CYO’s Adventure Series provided for a great story for a father / son from Berthoud High.  Tyler and Randy Parker attended CYO in the Spring 2011 session.  Having attended all 12 weeks, the pair qualified to sign up for one of the many Adventure Series events made possible by CYO.  The Adventure event for the Parkers was the Antelope Hunt provided by Comanche Wilderness Outfitters.

Those who have hunted antelope know how challenging this hunt can be.  It can be even more challenging when its your first antelope hunt with two tags to fill.  Just to spice it up a little how about adding the challenge of having to be home by 4:30pm in order to be ready for prom that evening!  This is exactly the stage set by Tyler and his dad for their first antelope excursion.  We will not bore you with the details of how they belly crawled for miles and the distance they had to make the shots at but what we will tell you is that Tyler outshot his dad in bagg’in his game. What a fantastic day it was in the pair harvesting their antelope but the clock is ticking.  Having both animals down by 10:30 am afforded the two a chance to take some pics, throw some high fives and take proper care of the game.

Once loaded and heading North for a couple hours it was time to put the pedal to the medal.  Tylers adrenaline was still flowing as he was planning for the 2^nd half of his day.  That night it was Homecoming at Berthoud High and as determined as Tyler was not to miss hunting he was even more so in having a fantastic night with his date and friends.   A quick shower, some Brute cologne and his mothers hand in straightening out his tie, it was out for the night for Tyler. What a day / night for Tyler and by the looks of things Tyler started his successful day with orange and ended his successful day with an even prettier shade of orange.

This year we celebrate 10yrs of programming and we salute all of you who have helped this organization build upon this mission and deliver programming that has grown from one high school program 10yrs ago into availability of communities.   10yrs has taught us many things about how to perform our service with both our internal customers (participants) as well as external (sponsors).  One area we hope to reach new levels of quality with is our ability to effectively communicate to all our customers.  With a very small staff this becomes a significant challenge but one we look forward to.  We hope you find the information below rewarding realizing how truly amazing it is what a team of passionate folks can do when they say…”count me in”.  Our intention is to keep you excited to be part of this team.

Our numbers this year were spectacular!  We hopefully have reached a sustainable rhythm with the interest to add value where we see the opportunity. Your support will go a long long way in insuring we are moving forward on several fronts.

Your support will go directly towards the following this year;
Current Programming insuring availability and quality for our participants
Continued Investment into our first Outdoor Education Center
Support of the strategic plan in identifying our growth model and plans

Within this year we will be announcing our first capital campaign in efforts to complete the North East Regional facility.  We promise to keep you abreast of this effort and success.

The following are the numbers we have to date on this year’s event.  We have included past yrs values along with our goals for this past year to share with you all how powerful all your efforts / support have become.

2010 Net $126,395.00            2011 Plan Net $115,000      2011 Challenge Net $161,000

2011 Actual Net $212,000.00

I hope this letter finds you in great spirits as this information is truly something to celebrate.  Our dates for next year’s event are already on the calendar as May 4-6th 2012. We hope this weekend is conducive to you joining us again.

Thank you again for such passion.

Enjoy your family, enjoy our outdoors and God Bless

10 years of being in this business has taught us many things.  One of the most important is the constant battle of being able to focus on the priorities.  With a new company so many tangents become temptations to stray from your core mission.  I am proud that we have always reminded ourselves why we are here and how we support our mission at all times.

The next 10 years will prove to be as interesting as the past I am sure.  In fact we should not be surprised to find ourselves moving even faster as our templates of success prove their worth.  Our strength today is in the North East region with the outdoor education center and all the communities it supports.  In a matter of years we should see the build out such that we can truly see its potential.  From there who knows but our visions are very exciting and goals quite lofty.  I will share more on visions and goals later in my messages but for now its time to focus on the objectives at hand and continue to use what we have learned in 10 years to shape our successful future.

Enjoy your family, enjoy our outdoors and God Bless.

We are very excited to hear this as well as increase the quality in each program using our new facility. This model allows Colorado Youth Outdoors to better understand its growth potential and how we do business. Facilities Based Programming is proving to be the way forward in the Vision of CYO’s expansion. While it will take several years to complete the North East Facility we are already looking into where this model or template may be applied in other regions of the state.

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