Syracuse.com - Baltimore Woods exec talks about how her father influenced her love for the outdoors

[HuntingNY-News]

"It's the moments that he spent with me outdoors and the memories he's given me through those experiences that makes me love being outdoors as much as I do," she said.

Mary Kate Hartmann  

(Editor's note: The following email came too late to include in my wrapup that ran in Sunday's newspaper of readers' comments about how their father influenced their love for the outdoors. However, I was touched by it and decided to share it with readers.)

The following was written by Mary Kate Hartmann, executive director at Baltimore Woods Nature Center:

"I should start off by saying that I've never been camping. I've never even owned a tent or built a lean-to for fun. My Dad isn't that kind of outdoors man, however, even though that wasn't his thing, he's had a profound influence on my love of the outdoors.

"My Dad taught me to love to play outside. Snow, wind, rain, 90 degree days, I can't remember a time growing up when he didn't take us outside to play soccer, catch, football, go sledding or for bike rides. He made being outside fun for us, something that we did together.

"Time spent outdoors with my Dad resulted in me learning lessons about how practicing your sport could yield more playing time during games, that no matter how tough climbing that hill on your bike was reaching the top was always the reward and that pulling your kid up the hill in a sled because they were too tired to walk in the snow is just part of being a loving parent.

"In the summer we'd go for walks as a family after dinner with the intention of going all around the neighborhood, but would usually make it 2 blocks before running into neighbors, the result of which would be us kids going off to play until the street lamps would come on while the parents sat outside on the porch visiting. Those walks are some of my favorite memories that I share with long time family friends as we remember a childhood spent outdoors rather than in front of a TV or computer screen. Now, us kids are all adults and we take our kids for walks together. Had we not taken all those walks and invested the time in visiting, would those life long friendships still be the same?

"Sunsets and views. My mom likes to say that she never really stopped to watch the sun set until she met my Dad, so I can attribute my love of taking 10 minutes to watching the sun set to both of them I guess. Many times in the Summer and Fall we'd pile into the car for a little road trip after dinner and after a 20 minute ride end up finding a spot to watch the sun set with an ice cream cone. I think that might be the only time growing up that my siblings and I would sit still together for more than 5 minutes. My favorite time of day to drive is at sunset and as I've watched many gorgeous CNY sunsets on my drive home I can't help but remember all of those fun times with my family.

"So while my Dad may not have taken me camping, taught me how to build a fire (outside of the fire pit in our driveway) or to fish, it's the other moments that he spent with me outdoors and the memories he's given me through those experiences that makes me love being outdoors as much as I do."

Mary Kate Hartmann

Executive Director

Baltimore Woods Nature Center

4007 Bishop Hill Road - P.O. Box 133

Marcellus, NY 13108-0133

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog