Foster the Outdoors Seeking New Mentors

by Kevin Wier
2025 was another great year for the Foster the Outdoors mentorship program.  We paired a total of 12 youth with volunteer mentors and three of the youth this year were young ladies.  In the March edition of the MNTU newsletter we had the opportunity to highlight and thank some of the wonderful partners who make this mentorship program tick.  Of course the real MVP’s of the program are the mentors themselves and we highlight some of their adventures in the article as well.  You can see the full article here: https://mntu.org/newsletter/
At the risk of stating the obvious, we can’t run the program without mentors. 

Another truth, that is growing increasingly obvious to me, is that we are not getting any younger.  Simply hoping that the next generation is going to pick up the mantle and care about fishing, conservation and trout waters isn’t exactly a solid action plan.  We need to begin to engage them and this program does that in a very concrete way.  We want to continue to grow this wonderful program and the only way to do that is with more volunteer mentors.  Please consider joining this great group.  I can assure that the time commitment really is minimal (typically just an outing per month throughout the summer) and you’ll be amazed at the tremendous sense of accomplishment and just plain fun you’ll get in return.  Finally, you don’t need to be an “expert” at all, just someone with a little knowledge that they want to share with a youth.
The program kicks off every year with a mentor matchup event in May, followed by outings during the summer months.  There’s a fly tying evening in October and a fly shop tour in January, that’s it.  The 2026 mentor match up event is Saturday May 16 9AM-Noon at Valley Lake Park in Lakeville.  Even if you’re not ready to commit to being a mentor for the season, we can always use help at this event and you’ll get to see firsthand the impact of this program. 
Thanks in advance for helping introduce a young person to fly fishing and the outdoors!
Questions?  Contact:
Kevin Wier 612-867-5768
Rich Femling 763-807-5878
Email at: [email protected]
Learn more at our Website https://mntu.org/mentoring/