FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.
By Kyle Macdonald, Bay Area Wilderness Training Founder and CEO.
San Francisco, CA, September 22, 2008

An increasing body of alarming evidence is linking a host of pediatric health problems - from childhood obesity to increased rates of Attention Deficit Disorder - to kids’ sedentary lifestyle. A growing number of Bay Area parents whose kids spend too much time in front of the television now have a new campaign directed to help them.

According to takeachildoutside.org, a Web site dedicated to the event, Take A Child Outside Week is a program designed to help break down obstacles that keep children from discovering the natural world. Their goal is to help children across the country develop a better understanding and appreciation of the environment in which they live, and a burgeoning enthusiasm for its exploration.

Bay Area Wilderness Training (BAWT), a San Francisco based Non-Profit Organization, is among the 250 organizations in the U.S. and Canada to take part in this year Take A Child Outside Week. The concept began last year in North Carolina, and has now spread throughout much of the U.S. Liz Baird, Director of School Programs at North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, who came up with the idea of Take a Child Outside Week, explains that parents today often have to force their children to go outside. 

“We’re thrilled to be connected to a larger growing, national movement to get youth outside” said Kyle Macdonald, Bay Area Wilderness Training Founder and CEO. “The growing body of evidence helps illustrate what we feel we’ve known for 10 years " getting outside is critical to the health and well-being of all children.”

Take A Child Outside Week gives people the opportunity to pledge to take a child outside and record their outdoor experiences, get ideas for outdoor activities and find participating organizations in their area.

BAWT’s mission is to create opportunities for urban youth to experience wilderness firsthand. It does this by training youth workers and teachers to lead safe and effective trips into wilderness for their youth, and then provides all the equipment they need at no charge. BAWT plays an important role in connecting youth to nature by exposing urban youth to wilderness, where a broadened sense of self, others, and the larger world is a frequent result. Since 1999, BAWT has helped over 7,000 youth get outdoors.

About BAWT.
Bay Area Wilderness Training (BAWT), a non-profit project of San Francisco’s Earth Island Institute, facilitates outdoor experiences for youth in the greater Bay Area. BAWT provides professional training courses for adult youth workers in skills necessary to conduct safe, high quality wilderness trips for the young people they serve and a comprehensive library of outdoor gear leaders can utilize to outfit their trips free of charge. BAWT has served over 7,000 youth since their founding in 1999.   

About Take A Child Outside Week.
Take A Child Outside Week is a program designed to help break down obstacles that keep children from discovering the natural world. By arming parents, teachers and other caregivers with resources on outdoor activities, their goal is to help children across the country develop a better understanding and appreciation of the environment in which they live, and a burgeoning enthusiasm for its exploration.