Teaching local School kids the Hobby.

[dhearn]

I have been thinking about starting a little group to get the kids interested in Metal detecting. I have talked to the local superintendent of the school district and he thinks its a great idea. I would like some feed back from anyone that have tried to set something like this up before and if you had any luck. When we are out on our club hunt we always have kids and adults asking questions about the hobby. Does anyone have any ideas on how to get funding for a project like this. I talked to the guy that is in charge of the National Archery In the Schools program for out area, and he gave me a few ideas. He also said that the funding is going to be the biggest hurdle. He said that he had luck with using Go Fund Me through face book. I might try that route. Any feed back would be great.

Thanks in Advance

 

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[coinman123]

Sounds like a very cool plan, how many kids are joining? I recommend starter models around $100 each for them. What about school fundraisers like selling candy bars and such? Last month the teacher of a class of a local elementary school asked me to do a presentation of my colonial artifacts and talk about them and answer questions for 45 minutes on their "colonial day festival" It worked great! What you are doing is slightly different though. You should do it after school for an hour or two, and go to local places to hunt, at the beginning of the first trips give some info at the beginning of the trip, for example, one day on how to dig plugs and use the machine (that should be one of the first ones). I think that you should go in front of the front door right after school, get a ride ready, (If you can not take buses have parents drive kids to the location) You could carpool with sports teams too if the area you are going is on the way. When everyone joins they should get a flyer which says where the club is going day by day in advance. Meeting once or twice a week would be the best. Those are just my thoughts.

Coinman123,

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Fantastic idea! Getting the young ones interested in the hobby and teaching them right.

 

[Keppy]

Two many out there detecting now .. Bad idea..

 

[coinman123]

Two many out there detecting now .. Bad idea..

Why so negative?? I think it is great to get young kids doing a nice wholesome outside hobby instead of playing video games and such. Do you think that some children metal detecting will be a threat to metal detecting, if so you should try to think differently, a small number of children metal detecting will not cause any harm, in fact, most will probably not do much metal detecting outside of the club, cheers to the children who do metal detect outside the club and get involved in the greatest hobby of all. I think youth metal detecting gives the hobby a better name if anything.

Just my Opinion, Coinman123,

 

[dirtlooter]

detecting etiquette would be nice to teach them, so many out there have none

 

[CincinnatiKid]

I think it's a great idea. Although, kids do have a short attention span. The parents will surely be all in, til the child asks for a 3030.
Do you have inexpensive "loner" machines to begin your quest? Donations may be problematic initially.
Good luck...
Peace ✌

 

[austin]

Great idea. What level do you plan to begin with? Elementary, middle school or high school? Hammer out your ideas and set up the program. Then raise money. Flavored popcorn and candy sales(sour stuff sells much better than chocolate) work great. Products sell themselves. Get a teacher to help and do the fund raising through approved companies the school board approves . Car washes work too. Depends on how much you need. I taught high school for 30 years. Another teacher and I decided to break tradition and take the Prom off campus. Went to a downtown San Antonio hotel and had a great time. Cost $14,000 instead of the usual $500. Wrote the hotel a check for it the week before. Principal almost passed out. He was prepared to help pay for it. Point is, making money is a breeze. Just takes effort. Also, no need to transport anyone for awhile. Meet and teach at the school, then MD the school grounds. Next, the closest park. Get permission to do houses in the area. Parents should let you do theirs. Just go for it. Goal, plan, execute. Piece of cake. You already have Supt's permission. Get some volunteers(meeting for interested parents, teachers, others) and go for it...

 

[bigfoot1]

personally I would think it may be more advisable to go in the club direction.Anytime you involve the state you may find road blocks and insurance requirements.Perhaps a youth club,not school affiliated.You can advertise in their yearbook,now would be the time.flyers around youth activity areas.
Having ran a childrens ski school for over twenty years I can huck this out there.The kids are great,super fun to work with.The parents...not so much.Think sports coach etc.A thankless proposition.
It is possible that a local detecting club could make a focused effort by simply inviting soccer moms and little league dads to bring their kids to a group hunt and check it out.also most folks would not believe the financial committment required these days for a high school kid to play football etc.not to mention the time requirements.

I wish you good sucess in whichever direction you decide,from my own detecting history I could almost imagine saturday afternoon at a park.A sign says free detecting lessons.go from there

 

[TrpnBils]

I have been thinking about starting a little group to get the kids interested in Metal detecting. I have talked to the local superintendent of the school district and he thinks its a great idea. I would like some feed back from anyone that have tried to set something like this up before and if you had any luck. When we are out on our club hunt we always have kids and adults asking questions about the hobby. Does anyone have any ideas on how to get funding for a project like this. I talked to the guy that is in charge of the National Archery In the Schools program for out area, and he gave me a few ideas. He also said that the funding is going to be the biggest hurdle. He said that he had luck with using Go Fund Me through face book. I might try that route. Any feed back would be great.

Thanks in Advance

Couple of ideas....I've considered this before too but never really looked into it seriously. I'm a high school teacher, and my students are constantly asking me about stuff that I find (to the point where on Mondays I usually have a picture of anything I dug during the previous week/weekend because I get asked about it so much. I've had several students get detectors of their own over the years because of in interest generated in class, so it's kinda cool.

Are you a teacher? If not, could you find a teacher to "oversee" the club? They wouldn't really have to do anything except be the figurehead. Check out DonorsChoose.org: Teachers ask. You choose. - you essentially write a mini grant proposal for materials and anybody in the world can contribute. A teacher registered with the school would need to write it up (hence the need for an educator to be involved) but you could still be in charge of the club activities, etc. I've been using this site to fund projects for my classes for about three years and have had just shy of $10,000 donated for various projects just for my own students so it DOES get noticed when you put up a unique project like that. I'd go for something like Ace 250s or something like that....not totally bottom of the barrel, easy to use, and relatively cheap.

Another idea would be to do a seeded hunt of sorts to try to spur more interest as well. May be able to find a coin dealer that would be willing to donate (or ebay seller to buy from if nothing else) some low-value coins (wheats, indians, cull silver, etc) to be seeded.