Colorado Youth Outdoors announces plans for new Colorado Springs campus
Pikes Peak region families will soon have more bonding opportunities through the great outdoors.
Colorado Youth Outdoors (CYO) announced it will establish full-time operations in Colorado Springs starting this month with plans to open a regional campus based in the area that will offer local kids and parents outdoor recreational programs.
Founded in Fort Collins in 2001, the nonprofit organization provides families with outdoor recreation opportunities through curriculum at its 220-acre outdoor facility.
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The facility currently offers annual summer camps and after-school archery, trapping, survival kit assembly, smallbore and rifle shooting, fishing and fly-tying classes. Other features include open-air pavilions, stocked fishing ponds, shooting ranges and a half-mile archery course.
Beyond just providing education and recreation, the nonprofit’s goal is to strengthen the relationships between children and their parents through these outdoor activities. To date, CYO has worked with over 116,000 people in northeastern Colorado.
“We have a great template for success,” founder and CEO Bob Hewson said. “And it’s just a matter of how we can apply that template to multiple regions going forward.”
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CYO has also operated in Colorado Springs since 2006, though to a much lesser degree because its leadership, funding and equipment are located in Fort Collins along with its only dedicated location.
To date, the Colorado Springs program has served over 1,200 people with a site-based model offering after-hours classes at Doherty High School by three District 11 teachers.
Odyssey teacher Zach Cooper instructing a kid how to properly handle and shoot a bow and arrow at Pelligrino’s Archery Hut.
While the Colorado Springs program doesn’t yet have its own outdoor education center, local partnerships with the Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Pikes Peak Gun Club, Pellegrino’s Archery Hut, the AFA Archery Club, The Colorado Boys Ranch, and the Colorado Springs Chapter of Safari Club International have helped provide families with its current programs.
Hewson said the site-based approach is ultimately inefficient and expensive when compared to a centrally located site where families come to them rather than meeting at multiple locations.
He added that in addition to its programs already in place, Colorado Springs was a natural choice for CYO because of both its rich history with outdoor recreation and the large number of military families.
In the past, classes have provided parents options to spend time with their kids while their partners are out on deployment. Conversely, the programs have also helped the opposite parents reconnect with their families and community upon their return.
“We’re the perfect fit for that,” Hewson said. “We are experts at building those relationships.”
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Along with announcing the plans for a new standalone facility, CYO also announced the appointment of their first executive director for the southeastern area, Martin Trujillo.
A 30-year military veteran who retired to Colorado Springs in 2017, Trujillo has been affiliated with the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Southeast Regional Office for the past six years and currently serves as a Safari Club International board member and the co-chair of El Pomar’s Hispanic Advisory Council.
His background in the military, returning to civilian life, outdoor project development and community involvement in the Pikes Peak region made him an ideal candidate.
“It was a natural fit for me,” Trujillo said.
Colorado Youth Outdoors Southeastern Colorado Executive Director Martin Trujillo.
Seeking at least 100 acres for the new site, CYO now begins the process of fundraising and identifying the facility location over the next two years. The Safari Club International Colorado Chapter has already contributed $10,000 to CYO while Scheels awarded them $10,000 for programming in Colorado Springs after breaking ground for its second store at the Interquest Marketplace.
While they admit it would be ideal to find a location similar to the one in Fort Collins, given its past success, Hewson and other leadership also recognize that geographical differences will likely lead to slight differences in the new location.
Possible program additions could include horseback riding, hiking, rock-climbing, camping and survival skills, but these won’t be decided or determined until campus plans are set.
Trujillo said that, more so than finding and building the eventual location, the priority now is to build the program’s capacity through relationships with local organizations, school districts families in the community.
“We have time to find the facility,” he said. “But if people don’t know about it, what are we doing?”
