Scott Weidensaul of Schuylkill County, Pa, a successful writer and avid conservationist, has received the 2009 Eastern Sports & Outdoor Show Achievement Award for Conservation.

 

Weidensaul is the author of more than two dozen books on natural history, including the Pulitzer Prize-nominated “Living on the Wind,” about bird migration.

 

Weidensaul is a trustee of the Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, Audubon Pennsylvania, as well as being an active field researcher. Each fall, he oversees a crew of more than 100 volunteers banding migrant saw-whet owls in central Pennsylvania.

 

One of fewer than 200 hummingbird banders in North America, Weidensaul has traveled throughout the Western Hemisphere researching his books.

 

A 1976 graduate of North Schuylkill High School, Weidensaul began his professional writing career as an outdoors writer and general assignment reporter for the Pottsville Republican.

 

“Scott has been an extraordinary volunteer and driving force for the Ned Smith Center for Nature since the very beginning” said Jerry Regan, the Center’s Executive Director.

 

Weidensaul was a founding member of the Ned Smith Center for Nature, and has served on the Board of Directors since the Center's inception in 1993.

Harold Stoneberger of Lewisbury, PA, has received the 2009 Eastern Sports & Outdoor Show Youth Mentor Award for his efforts in promoting the outdoors and outdoor sports to youth.

 

When it comes to mentoring youth, Stoneberger leads by example. He realizes the value of teaching young people about the outdoors and outdoor sports and has implemented programs for youth at the grassroots level.

 

The Crushers are a group of youth ranging from 5th through 12th grade that practice shooting clay targets at the Central Penn Sporting Clays Club owned by Harold Stoneberger. Harold organized and sponsors this group of youth that shoot in a clay target program competing on both state and national levels. This program has grown over the last five years and now includes about twenty male and

female participants.

 

Stoneberger also opens his sporting clays club each fall to other youth programs, including a youth field day. A variety of shooting activities including sporting clays, muzzleloaders, rim-fire rifles, archery, and even shooting game birds over dogs are available for the youth to experience.

 

Each year, Stoneberger puts on a youth fundraiser at his club with Safari Club International Blue Mountain chapter. In 2008 they netted $14,000 for youth programs. In the past three years they have been able to send over 20 youngsters to the Wyoming Wilderness School for Youth.

 

Stoneberger also owns three farms in York County and allows only youth to hunt on them. This year alone four buck and four doe were harvested on his farms by hunters under 17 years of age.

Bob Herman has received the 2009 Eastern Sports & Outdoor Show Humanitarian Award for his efforts in raising money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society through Capitol City Bassmasters.  

 

Herman and the Capital City Bassmasters began their association with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in 2003. The Bassmasters, in conjunction with The Pennsylvania Outdoor Writers Association, hosted a children’s fishing derby and invited pediatric cancer patients and their families from The FourDiamonds Fund and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society for a fun day of fishing and a hot dog cookout.

 

All children who attended received a rod, reel and tackle box compliments of Bass Pro Shops.

 

“When the kids get there, some are sick and look very tired, others are shy and a little unsure of what to do, but by the end of the four hours, they’re standing up, throwing rods, and appear to be having the time of their lives. After seeing the look on their faces after the first year, the feeling we went home with was just tremendous. The Bass Classic tournament got started because we wanted to do more for these children,” said Bob Herman, public relations chair for the Capital City Bassmasters.

 

As a result of the fishing derby, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s annual Bass Classic was

created. The Bass Classic takes place over Labor Day weekend during Harrisburg’s annual Kipona festival. It is one of the largest bass events held on the Susquehanna River and has raised over $35,000 since it’s inception four years ago.

 

Through Herman’s efforts, the Bass Classic and the kid’s fishing derby are sponsored by such generous benefactors as C.A.I. Computer Aid Inc., the City of Harrisburg, the Pennsylvania Outdoor Writers Association, and Bass Pro Shops.

 

The funds raised during this event are directed to blood cancer research and local patient services programs including patient aid. The Central Pennsylvania Chapter of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society could not offer these programs without the work of local benefactors like Herman and Capital City Bassmasters.

 

The Eastern Sports & Outdoor Show Humanitarian Award is presented annually to an individual or organization in recognition of their demonstrated commitment to using their knowledge of the outdoors and outdoor sports to improve and support their community.

 

The Eastern Sports & Outdoor Show will be held in Harrisburg from February 7-15.