Lincks enjoy Safari Club boot camp for teachers
For many educators, their own search for knowledge never ends.
Bentworth High School history teacher George Linck and his wife, Corrine, a retired guidance counselor for Washington School District who now works as a substitute, are two such people.
The Lincks returned last week from the learning experience of a lifetime at the Safari Club International Foundation’s American Wilderness Leadership School near Jackson, Wyo.
“It was just unbelievable,” George Linck said. “There were no breaks. It was like a college football camp. But there were 28 teachers from across the country that were right in step with it.”
As part of the eight-day workshop, teachers were offered hands-on lessons focused around the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation as well as lessons on conservation education.
“It was everything I expected and more,” George Linck said. “Your days flew by and they were pretty overwhelming.”
The Lincks decided to apply for the program in the spring. Corrine Linck, 57, found sponsorship for the classes, which cost $900 from the local Safari Club chapter based in Belle Vernon. George Linck, 58, went through the national chapter.
In addition to conservation promotion, they were taught survival training, stream entomology and a number of other useful skills they could take home to their students.
It also allowed them to meet with other educators from across the country and see things from a different perspective.
The Lincks befriended a pair of Vo-Ag teachers from Oklahoma who were in the course and found the schools there offer competitive archery classes, something George Linck would like to bring to Bentworth.
Following the completion of their course work, the Lincks also spent another six days at Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks.
Maybe now, they’re ready to take on one of the many survivor-type reality television shows.
“Yeah, maybe,” George Linck said. “I watch ‘Naked and Afraid’ sometimes. I don’t think I’m ready to take things that far.”
• The Frazier-Simplex Junior Rifle Club No. 1 team won the Pennsylvania Precision Division Championship and overall three-position title recently, beating out 35 other teams from across the state at the 25th American Legion Junior Air Rifle Championships.
The team, which was sponsored by the Edwin Scott Linton American Legion Post 175 consisted of Christopher Thomas, Morgan Duerr, Cassidy Fairman and Matthew Lovre.
In addition to winning the state title, they placed sixth in the nation among 348 participants.
Fairman was 16th in the overall national standings, while Lovre was 24th.
Frazier-Simplex’s No. 2 team – John Paul Grabowski, Molly Hensley, Thomas Welch and Luke Knollinger – placed fifth in the state and 24th in the national tournament.
The course of fire with the air rifles from 20 shots in each of the three positions – standing, kneeling and prone – at a distance of 33 feet (10 meters).
Outdoors Editor F. Dale Lolley can be reached at dlolley@observer-reporter.com.