Joe King, 89, wants to inspire youth. An avid outdoorsman, King was raised in a single-parent household where his mother juggled several jobs to make ends meet. King found his love of outdoors early on, and he has spent many of his years trying to spread that love to kids through the Outdoor Youth Exploration Academy (OYEA).
King’s love of nature started with fishing with his cousins. From gathering bait to hunting frogs, his experience grew, and so did his appreciation for the natural world.
“(Hunting) helped me. It kept me out of trouble, so I thought, ‘I’m gonna keep these kids out of trouble,’” King said. “So, we started a youth program.”
The goal came to fruition in 1980 when King and friend, Bill Burris and carpenter, John Wood, established the Dirty Dozen Fishing and Hunting Club. The club met on the first Sunday of every month in King’s basement and the adventures included pheasant hunting on Thanksgiving and fishing trips throughout Canada.
The Dirty Dozen eventually evolved into the youth program in the 80s, and with hunting and fishing came archery, too.
“We have a great relationship with the Department of Natural Resources. They came to me seeking help because they were trying to get archery in the inner-city schools,” King said.
King asked, well, if you have archery in the township schools, why can’t you have it in the inner-city schools? That question would ring in King’s head for four years until he successfully implemented archery programs in the inner city.
This success was marked with several of his students entering an inner-city archery tournament under Arsenal Tech, who didn’t have a team to participate at the time. To prepare, King told his students two things: go to bed early, and don’t be late.
“I had them shoot from the lobby back to the target in case the range was longer than what we’d been practicing on,” King said.
King had a funeral on the other side of town to attend while the students were competing, but he rushed back to see the results. A woman from the school approached King and told him the news.
“She said ‘Mr. King, Mr. King, come here, come here, come here. I got something to show you.’” Kind said. “Up on the wall, the winners. Tech won the tournament. I looked at them and said, ‘I’ll be damned.’”
Aside from archery courses, the Outdoor Youth Exploration Academy also offers beginning courses for hunting. A skill, according to King, that is much more than just point-and-shoot.
“Everybody should take a hunter’s education course,” King said. “Even if they don’t ever want to touch a gun, shoot a gun, whatever. It teaches them the basic safety to guns, adults and the kids.”
Fishing is also a key element at OYEA. Designed to combine relaxation, skill and adventure, the fishing courses are about much more than the sport. King wants children to experience things in nature.
“I’m not interested in having a kid on a boat telling them about what I used to do in fishing,” King said. “I’m interested in having a kid on a boat to show them how to fish and how to be a pro.”
Being outdoors teaches the kids to appreciate nature, and from there comes an effort to be a conservationist and pass these skills on to more generations.
“It takes kids from the inner city, and gets them to go outside, explore outside, explore nature,” said Glenn Sampson, who serves on the OYEA board. “Instead of turning on the TV or the radio, they get to go outside and enjoy nature.”
The outdoor elements are simply the foundation of a greater mission: to understand what kids like to do, to expose them to new things and to inspire them to lead exemplary lives.
“You don’t know the assets of what a child is until you find out, “King said. “If you have 10 kids and you expose them to 10 different things, that child’s going to let you know what they like. We’re in the business of changing people.”
King encourages his students to be disciplined and firm in their actions and beliefs.
“When you come in my facility, you don’t touch nothing,” King said. “If stares were bullets, I’d have bullets all in me because ain’t nobody ever heard nothing like that.”
King knows that with discipline comes opportunity, a chance to prove people wrong and make yourself known.
“You can get a college education if you can fish,” King said. “There’s schools, Vincennes University, Michigan State University, Indiana State University, that have archery teams. If you’re good, you can get a scholarship, get on a team and get your education. There’s opportunities out here you don’t know, and that’s what we try to do.”
For more information and for programming schedules, visit oyeaacademy.squarespace.com. The academy is at 2415 E. 39th St. To reach the clubhouse, call 317-541-0271.
Contact Health & Environmental Reporter Hanna Rauworth at 317-762-7854 or follow her on Instagram at @hanna.rauworth.
