Outdoor Parents, Outdoor Kids Wins Gold Medal in Living Now Book Award

Posted: 04/28/2010 In Category: Print / Broadcast / Electronic Media

Industry News Release Written By: Eugene Buchanan

Beachburg, Ontario (April 28, 2010) – Further supporting its timeliness and topical message, Outdoor Parents, Outdoor Kids by award-wining author Eugene Buchanan recently won the Gold Medal in the Family (Parenting/Health/Safety) category from the 2010 Living Now Book Awards, recognizing Books for Better Living.

Celebrating new books that enhance the quality of life in categories ranging from cooking to parenting, the awards are designed to promote new tomes that help readers enrich their lives in wholesome, Earth-friendly ways. In all, 103 medals were awarded in 30 categories, chosen from 428 total entries.

“Great books help us imagine change and give us the knowledge we need to make change happen,” says awards director Jim Barnes. “They’re necessary to inform and inspire us to keep ourselves and the Earth healthy – today, and for future generations. These books will help people to find a balance with the natural world around them.”

The book’s premise – released while President Obama hosted the first-ever White House Conference on America’s Great Outdoors, encouraging families to spend more time outside – is that the game is on to get kids off GameBoy and into the great outdoors. Childhood obesity rates have tripled in the past 30 years, affecting a third of our nation’s children and costing the U.S. $150 billion every year.

Participation numbers are equally disheartening. The Outdoor Foundation reports that youth participation in outdoor recreation has dropped nearly 17 percent over the last three years. It also finds that most youth are introduced to outdoor activities through their families. “Sadly, fewer youth are heading outdoors each year,” says the Foundation’s executive director Christine Fanning. “Reconnecting youth with the outdoors is critical to the health of future generations and our natural landscapes.”

Benefiting the Outdoor Foundation’s efforts to grow youth participation in outdoor recreation, the book extends parents a set of training wheels in getting their kids active outside. Richard Louv, author of best-selling Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, calls it “An excellent beginner’s guide to help parents instill in their kids a love of outdoor activities." Carol Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, calls it “an important contribution to the work of connecting our children to the outdoors.” And award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns says, “Nowadays, too many of us, especially our children, suffer from a Nature deficit. This wonderful book will go a long way toward remedying that.”

For more information visit www.outdoorkidsbook.com. For media copies, contact The Heliconia Press ((613) 582 7154; media@helipress.com).

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