Rural Missouri - June 2023 - 37

by Zach Smith | zsmith@ruralmissouri.coop
F
or Candice Price and Wayne Hubbard, organizing a
family outing is similar to your average fi shing trip.
They round up the poles and tackle, and the pond
they stock is a little closer to the city center than the
back 40. The real difference is they're expecting anywhere
from 200 to 1,500 people.
" It's about the community, because kids can't make it
without Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa - somebody in
their family, " Candice says of the program, Urban Kids
Fish. " People are connecting with it because they feel welcome.
They feel included. "
For two decades, and across 36 states and fi ve countries,
sharing the fun of fi shing has brought countless families
together. Based on that success, it's easy to assume
putting on a fi shing derby is a full-time job for the Kansas
City-based business partners. In truth, it's one branch
of an ever-growing tree - the roots of which go back to
Wayne's childhood spent
hunting and fi shing with his
family in Oklahoma.
" My grandmother was a
Cherokee Freedmen, " Wayne
recalls, " and she always
talked about the spiritual
side of the outdoors: 'you
can't take and not give
back.' "
The sprouts took off when
Wayne, Candice and their
crew began fi lming " Urban
American Outdoors, " a reality
sports adventure show.
When it was nationally
syndicated in 2003, the show
immediately gained attention
and a Sports Emmy Award
nomination.
" It wasn't just hunting
and fi shing, it was the experience,
from beginning to the
end, " Wayne says of initial
reactions to the show. " A lot
of shows are so focused on the harvest and the trophy. We
focused more on how people connect to the land and what
makes the work that we do in nature great. "
The show was a trailblazer, not only for AfricanAmerican
owned and produced TV, but also many
trends associated with the industry. Candice says the
cooking portion of the show was a direct reaction to food
insecurities they knew existed in the urban core.
" A big component was the food; whatever Wayne harvested,
we could bring it back and feed everybody, " Candice
says. " Twenty years ago, nobody was catching and
cooking from an urban and soul perspective on TV. We
started that. "
Likewise, Wayne doesn't consider representing diversity
Candice Price and Wayne Hubbard make an early spring cast at Spring
Valley Lake. The Kansas City park is a frequent host site of one of the
duo's initiatives, Urban Kids Fish.
in the outdoors to be anything new. He points to the
Buffalo Soldiers, all-Black U.S. Army regiments who
served on the frontier of the American West during the late
19th century, as one of the most popular examples that
the outdoors has always been open to everyone. In a 2018
Toyota " Road to Discovery " series, Wayne channeled one of
the soldiers as a tour guide for an African-American family
visiting the national parks, where the Buffalo Soldiers
served as some of the nation's fi rst park rangers. Playing
this introductory role for families to the outdoors is the
cornerstone of UAOTV's programs.
" When you go back and look in the history, we were
there, " Wayne says. " So what happened - what's the disconnect?
What we found out was that people didn't know
it. Seeing us do this changed the narrative in urban communities. "
I
love it when people
say, 'you make it
comfortable for us
to be outdoors.'
- Wayne Hubbard,
Urban American Outdoors TV
During the past 20 years, the show has been nominated
for four Emmys and won more than 75 broadcast
awards, but its biggest successes are the programs and
initiatives that grew from the
original show. Those include
donating wild game to food pantries
through Urban Sportsman
Feeding The Hungry, conducting
youth hunting and hunter safety
workshops and organizing Urban
Kids Fish. Wayne notes one
event saw fi ve generations of one
family fi shing together.
" The whole experience is
about how do we take the barriers
away and make that experience
accessible? " Candice adds.
" We help create that space, and
as Wayne has said sometimes we
recreate our community. "
Candice and Wayne's roles
as ambassadors for the outdoors
have earned them both appointments
to federal advisory councils.
Those seats at the table
inspired them to host the Urban
Outdoor Summit, an event which
focused on the relationship
between people of diverse backgrounds and the environment,
conservation and health and wellness issues.
If more than two decades of reacquainting urban families
with the outdoors and helping to shape government
policy wasn't enough, there's another task for Candice and
Wayne. It's a project that will never truly be fi nished: growing
the number of people of color employed in the outdoors
and conservation-related industries.
" I love it when people say, 'you make it comfortable for
us to be outdoors,' " Wayne says. " We want
to make sure they have representation,
and that's how we make advocates,
stewards and people who look for
these kinds of careers. "
Kansas City
For more information, visit www.
uaotv.com or follow UAOTV on
Facebook.
JUNE 2023 | RURALMISSOURI.COOP 37
http://www.uaotv.com http://www.uaotv.com http://www.RURALMISSOURI.COOP
Rural Missouri - June 2023

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