Pass It On program looking for more female mentors to help girls learn about outdoors

The shot’s echo had barely faded when the shouts, high-fives and hugs began early last Sunday in a special turkey season designed to give youth, and the disabled, first chance at spring turkeys.

Nastosha Sweeney stood by her first downed turkey, removing a camo mask to show a face that’s becoming more common in hunting.

Heather Bennett, Nastosha’s mentor, was equally as happy nearby.

“We have girls who have gone all of the way through hunter ed, and want to try hunting and shooting and we don’t have enough ladies to take them,” said Mike Christensen, president of the Pass It On-Outdoors Mentors program. “It’s not just that, but there are girls who would like to experience the great outdoors in other ways, like go fishing or take a nature (viewing) trip. There’s a lot they could be doing outdoors but they can’t because there’s nobody to go with them.”

Christensen’s program started in Wichita 15 years ago as a way to get more adults who like the outdoors involved in Big Brothers Big Sisters of Sedgwick County. It has, and the program has spread to many parts about all corners of Kansas.

As well as hunts for everything from doves to deer, and angling trips for everything that swims, Christensen said Pass It On has hosted trips for canoeing, kayaking, bird watching and hikes.

“Basically, if it can be done outdoors, we can set up a trip for it,” he said. “We work with a number of groups that have volunteers that would love to show the Kansas outdoors to more kids and their mentors.”

The goal is to get adults paired up long term with youth of similar interests, but Christensen said the group hosts “Big for a day” events pairing kids with adults for a specific trip. For these, Christensen said he is always lacking female mentors.

“If we have a girl out, trying shooting or fishing or whatever, we have to have a lady with her, it just can’t be just a guy,” Christen said. “A lot of times we have men that can teach the girl a lot of about the outdoors, but there just has to be a lady there for obvious reasons.”

Christensen thinks there are already women who could be mentors, and their numbers are growing annually.

Bill Brassard, National Shooting Sports Foundation senior director of communications, said his group has seen a 20-percent increase in women participating in shooting targets from 2010-14. The number of women hunting increased about 34 percent during the same time. Christensen said Pass It On could use females of all levels of experience.

“We can use ladies who already know a lot about the outdoors, and those who don’t know anything or just don’t know where to go,” he said. “We have outfitters and landowners all over the state who want to help. Pass It On also has lots of equipment we can provide. We just need the people to use it and work with these kids. There are always way, way too many kids waiting to get matched.”

Bennett said she’d lived her life with no interest in hunting. That changed after she met Sweeney, who developed an interested while taking a hunter education class to learn more about firearms safety.

“There’s no way I’d have any interest in hunting if it wasn’t for Nastosha. Her enthusiasm got me into it,” Bennett said Sunday morning. “One of the neatest things is that we were learning so much together. That gave us something else in common. We’ve done (Pass It On) hunts for doves, pheasants and turkeys and they’ve all been so much fun. We did a rifle shooting clinic, too, but we didn’t get a chance to hunt deer.”

After tagging the tom Sunday morning, they headed into El Dorado for a slow brunch and a lot of fast talking. Amid the gab of at least 15 topics, Bennett said she plans on being a hunter the rest of her life. She was as excited as Sweeney when the girl filled her second permit that afternoon on another young tom.

Unfortunately, it was probably their last hunt after about 16 months together. A job change for Bennett’s husband means she’ll be moving to Washington in a few weeks..

“I feel really bad leaving her, especially at her age,” she said. “At 16, there’s almost no chance anybody else will pick her up as a match, and every girl this age needs somebody like a Big Sister.”

But that doesn’t mean Sweeney is finished with the Big Sister experience. This fall she plans on being on several of Christensen’s Big-for-a-day trips, and hopes to get her first deer.

As they waited for that second bird, the West High sophomore who works 20 hours a week while pitching on the junior varsity softball team, talked about her plans for the future. They include cosmetology school and, most certainly, becoming a Big Sister to a younger girl and staying active in Pass it On programs.

“Any girl matched with Nastosha is going to have to really like the outdoors,” said Bennett. “But I can promise you if they do, they’re both going to have a really great time. We’ve loved it.”

This story was originally published April 8, 2016 at 7:22 PM with the headline "Pass It On program looking for more female mentors to help girls learn about outdoors."