Sitka Outdoor Recreation Coalition to survey local organizations about their outdoor programming

Dezi Olney-Miller, left, and cousin Marina Olney-Miller examine stones along a Sitka path.

The Sitka Outdoor Recreation Coalition (Get Out, Sitka!) will try to get an inventory of Sitka’s current outdoor programming, it was decided during the group’s first official meeting since the Sitka Health Summit. The meeting took place Thursday, Nov. 18, at Harrigan Centennial Hall.

One concern was trying not to duplicate similar work being undertaken to prepare the Sitka Sustainable Outdoor Recreation Action Plan, which is due in draft form this January and should be finalized by this summer. Since the Sitka Sustainable Outdoor Recreation Action Plan seemed to deal more with facilities and infrastructure, we decided to look at programming.

Creating an inventory of outdoor programming will help us know who already offers programming in Sitka, what needs there are, what partnership opportunities exist, and other questions that can help us get more people in Sitka, especially kids and families, outdoors for recreation. There are a lot of groups in Sitka that offer outdoor programs, but many of the programs aren’t advertised very well and the programming inventory hopefully will enable us to have a better picture of where we stand.

During the 2010 Sitka Health Summit in October, we came up with a list of 30 potential stakeholders in Sitka who provide outdoor programming, and that list since has grown to 46. We are hoping representatives from each of the organizations on our list of stakeholders (see Sitka Health Summit notes below) will be able to complete our short survey. If you know of someone who leads an organization, agency or business that provides outdoor programming in Sitka, please send them the survey link, http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QFF96LG.

Your help getting this survey out to various Sitka groups that provide outdoor programming is greatly appreciated. The next meeting of the Sitka Outdoor Recreation Coalition (Get Out, Sitka!) is 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 6, 2011, at Harrigan Centennial Hall, and we hope to have enough responses so we can start getting a better sense of what outdoor programs exist in town. For more information, contact Charles Bingham at 738-8875 or send e-mail to charleswbingham3@gmail.com.

• Sitka Health Summit notes (includes list of potential stakeholders)