Outdoors Tomorrow Foundation Expands Reach to 270,000 Students

The expansion marks the most significant growth period in the organization's history, pushing the total number of participating students to roughly 270,000 across the United States and Canada. By integrating lessons like archery, fishing, and hunter education directly into the school day, the foundation aims to combat what Executive Director Keith Tidball describes as a national crisis of sedentary, screen-reliant lifestyles among youth.

Despite the surge in access, demand continues to outpace the organization's current capacity. While a massive grant-funded push in 2026 temporarily reduced the waitlist of interested schools, new applications have caused that figure to climb back to approximately 2,000. To address this, the foundation is shifting its strategic focus from individual school enrollment to district-wide adoption, setting a goal to establish programs in 6,000 additional public school districts. The organization plans to formalize this expansion strategy at the upcoming SCI Convention in Nashville this January, where it will debut a national campaign to secure district-level sponsorships.