KTDontheGO: Back to School, NOT Back Inside

Two neighborhood kids pedaled aimlessly around the block last week, very obviously with no particular destination in mind. They swung from one side of the street to the other in that careless sort of manner kids use while out on their own, popping wheelies and turning in tiny circles until the handlebars came up to their chins. Three times they circled by my house, talking gravely of a subject I couldn’t hear, and I was about to go outside and cheer their carefree attitude when I finally caught wind of what the two were saying to each other. “Man, I will be so glad when school starts and my mom gives me back my XBox. This is the most boring summer I’ve ever had.”

Obviously, some well-meaning mother had booted her ‘tween treasure out into the streets of east Anchorage, holding said precious XBox hostage from June through August (fist-bump to you, Mom). Unfortunately, the promise of returning the black box of inactivity once school started seemed a little backward.

Outside time - most of us were raised with buckets of it. Booted outdoors in the morning or right after school and told not to show our pretty little faces until dinner, kids of my generation (and I cannot believe I just said that) were lucky if our moms let us watch an episode of "Gilligan’s Island" in between our after-school snack of Nilla Wafers and jelly and “don’t let the screen door smack you in the behind on the way out.”

Back to school is a tough season for parents who cling to the environment they and their offspring hopefully enjoyed all summer. Let’s be perfectly honest, as an outdoor sort of venue, Alaska has most states beat, so it pains me that many moms and dads unconsciously herd their broods inside as soon as the bell rings on the first day of class. Homework, cross-country, football, soccer or taekwondo; something is always happening right after school to prevent a little kid-frolic time in the great outdoors. We have to plan it, now, and, better or worse, it’s worth every click on the smartphone’s calendar.

We are so, so lucky many outlets now exist that provide calendars of upcoming events in and around southcentral Alaska. When I moved here in 2005 there were few, but with the jumping-jiminy of social media, we have several modes of communication to provide parents and kids with options for outdoor activities, my own AKontheGO to name just one.

A favorite group rather new on the scene is Get Outdoors Anchorage, a dynamic coalition of organizations, agencies, and individuals dedicated to providing outdoor events and activities for young people. What I like best about GOA is its come-together work ethic that foregoes all the governmental red tape (we work hand in hand with Fish and Game, the Forest Service, Anchorage Parks Foundation, and many others) with one mission in mind: serving kids in the beautiful, expanse of outdoors we call home. The GOA website provides a link to each and every partner, and a quarterly calendar is published for distribution in all Anchorage schools, not to mention REI, local coffee shops, and anywhere else parents might be caught hanging out. Want to know what’s happening in southcentral? This is the place.

I love Alaska for its vibrant community. It is so exciting to witness this active vehicle for a whole change of consciousness. Kids feel it, I feel it, and hopefully, those boys riding their bikes around and around my neighborhood will soon be feeling it, too.

Get outdoors, Anchorage. And keep the XBox in the closet shelf.