Revved up about a cause
By Harold Raker
The Daily Item
February 21, 2009 07:37 pm

— Ward Burton would like to see every youngster get the same
opportunities that he had. And the 2002 Daytona 500 winner is not
talking about winning NASCAR races.

Rather Burton is concerned that many of the youth of today do not know
what it is like to enjoy outdoor activities such as hunting and fishing.

His NASCAR success — five Nextel Cup wins and 356 Cup starts — gave
Burton the resources and the voice to try to do something about it. In
1996, he founded the nonprofit Ward Burton Wildlife Foundation, an
organization aimed at providing outdoors opportunities to the future
hunters and fishermen.

Burton, who made an appearance last week at the Eastern Sports and
Outdoor Show in Harrisburg, is working through the school system in his
native Virginia, something that may take more work to accomplish in
Pennsylvania, where most school districts have done away with the
Pennsylvania Game Commission's hunter education programs.

Recalling a recent outing with a seventh grade class from a Virginia
middle school, Burton said, "You would not believe the percentage of
kids who had never been fishing, or never had seen a beaver swamp or
didn't recognize a raccoon track on a bank, just simple common things."

He said he is concerned about the loss of the rural culture which, he
said, is responsible for today's young people having what he called
"nature deficit disorder."

He said, "They don't understand the things that we take for granted
because of the way that we were brought up."
Burton said schools should be teaching children about their environment
right along with world history.

"My children know, but there are other kids that are not being
influenced that way and it's really scary when you think about it," he
said. "Who is going to carry on the tradition for us down the road. We
have to keep up the fight and it's got to be done through the school
system."

Burton said organizations like his are doing all they can but they are
never going to reach the masses without going into the school system.

Pennsylvania Game Commission spokesman Jerry Feaser said the reason the
hunter education courses disappeared from the schools was that the
schools, first in urban areas and then throughout the state, either
forced the agency's hand by requiring them to sign waivers guarding them
from lawsuits or by banning weapons from school grounds.
"It was an unintended consequence," Feaser said.

In Virginia, Burton said, the programs are being run by volunteers, of
which he is one. "There are a whole hell of a lot of us out there who
care about our natural resources and our environment and who care about
the next generation," he said.
The South Boston, Va., native said he had great role models as a
youngster, primarily his grandfather and father, and he has passed those
traditions onto his own children.

Burton says that although he loves all kinds of outdoor activities and
is an avid trapper, he gets more enjoyment from the thrill of others,
especially his children.
"When my older son Jeb was 9, he killed his first wild turkey. When I
was 9, you didn't see wild turkey. But having him bag his first turkey
with the same gun that I was brought up on, watching that and just
coming out and teaching him how to clean it and all that, that was a lot
more endurable (memory) than if I'd have done it myself," he said.

"I've always had two passions in life. One was racing. One was outdoors.
Growing up racing go-karts as a child in the summer I did everything I
could to get out of school and (that included) hunting, and playing in
the woods in the winter," he said.
"When I started having some success in racing, I started trying to
figure out how to tie that into the responsibility I feel like we all
have for the outdoors. We all have a responsibility to take care of the
natural resources," he said.

Burton is not involved in racing at the moment, but has not ruled out a
return to the sport, even this season. He is also helping son Jeb, now
16, pursue a racing career.

Nevertheless, he will never forsake what he believes to be his duty to
promote the care of the environment.
"I owe a lot to a lot of people for having success in racing and I may
go back into racing sometime in the near future. But, I always held
racing was a career and outdoors was a lifetime endeavor. (The outdoors)
is not a career, it is a lifetime passion," he said.

Burton said that if he had not had success in racing, he would probably
be living in a log cabin somewhere. "I would be roughing it a little bit
more than I do now. The wife and kids don't like to rough it as much as
I do," he said with a laugh.

Even though the height of Burton's success is, for the time being,
behind him, he said that the foundation is solid and no longer depends
on his success in motorsports.
"No endeavor can live depending on a personality or an individual. It
has to be a cause," he said.

Burton's foundation has been responsible for taking numerous children,
many of them with illnesses, into the outdoors.
Moreover, Burton has lent his time and expertise to other organizations
with similar goals.
"Certainly mine is not the only one out there and it's not the only one
that's got a good cause, so if we all work together, we can all be
strong and make a difference," he said.

Burton has had his conflicts with those who oppose his views, most
notably People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
"They live in la la land. They live in concrete jungles and they don't
understand where their ancestors came from," Burton said. "Their
ancestors would not have made it if it had not been for fishing and
using the natural resource.
"And to tell me that this black belt that I've got on is something wrong
because it's leather, I think they are definitely barking up a tree that
I think most Americans don't have any sympathy for."

Burton is a member of the National Rifle Association, the antithesis of
PETA, but he concedes, "Sometimes you have to have extremists on one
side and extremists on the other."

He added, "If you could get those folks out and let them walk in my
moccasins for a day, they would see it is a whole lot more than just
harvesting game. They would see that from being influenced to hunt and
fish and do the outdoor activities that your role models taught you to
do, you had so much fun, it turned you into a conservationist when you
got older.
"I get enjoyment in trying to make a difference and having fun outdoors,
and you've always had a good day whether your bagged (game) or not," he
said.

As for gun rights, Burton said he is not too concerned about it because,
"I don't feel like they are going to make all of us criminals. They are
certainly not going to get the ones I have or the ones I am about to
get, and I don't think you or your neighbors are going to give up their
handguns or their rifles, either."

But Burton might just be a little more difficult to catch.

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Photos

Ward Burton is the 2002 Daytona 500 winner.

Whatever it takes......