On Saturday, April 30, from 3-7 p.m. in Beckham Hall, the Connecticut Forest and Park Association (CFPA), in alliance with the organization’s University chapter, is hosting its first annual “Connecticut Outdoor Gear Expo.”

Free for University students, and $5 for others, it will host a wide range of free clinics and demos, including fly-fishing, bicycle check-ups and repairs, skateboarding, and wooden walking stick carving. There will also be a silent auction from 6-7 p.m., featuring North Face sweatshirts, kayaks, and a hand-carved canoe.

“The Expo is a big event started by the CFPA organization to fundraise,” said Annie deBoer ’12, who founded WesCFPA in 2009. “The goal is to bring CFPA members together along with the Wesleyan community to promote the organization and all the great vendors that they have coming.”

The CFPA is Connecticut’s oldest conservation organization. It is dedicated to preserving Connecticut’s wildlife and educating the public on environmental issues and sustainability.

“Wesleyan and the CFPA have had a long history, with members of the Outing Club helping them blaze some of their trails a few decades ago,” deBoer said. “The partnership was rekindled beginning in 2008, and in 2009 it became a community service group through the Office of Community Services.”

CFPA Development Director James Little worked closely with deBoer to establish a connection between the University and the organization. Little suggested the idea for the Expo in order to promote stores and outing groups that support the CFPA to raise funds and awareness.

“This has been a wonderful association,” Little said. “We have an active core group of students. The Expo is a huge project for CFPA and it happened because of WesCFPA. Because of this event, many more retailers and people in the community will come to Wesleyan and hopefully engage in the positive energy of the Wes community.”

In the past, WesCFPA has collaborated with the CFPA on numerous events. Last week, in collaboration with campus groups Shining Hope For Communities and Environmental Organizers Network, WesCFPA brought Nick Cooney, who writes on effective activism, to campus. WesCFPA also organizes regular weekend outings, ranging from snowshoeing to hiking to building bridges.

“Each semester, we have an active core of about twenty volunteers,” deBoer said. “We have a trip during freshmen orientation and a set up at the club/activities fair to get new members. We’re always looking for volunteers, and it’s as easy as adding your name to our [email group].”

Although the club is still fairly new, many of its members have taken on a great deal of responsibility. This year, the CFPA assigned them a trail to maintain by themselves. In addition, six students have been certified as Crew Chiefs, allowing them to lead trail maintenance outings. However, the club does not require a large time commitment from all of its members.

“The club really involves no obligation, it’s the kind of thing that’s easy and fun to do whenever you have time and want a break from campus life,” said Anne Calder ’11, one of the more active members of the club. “So, while there is a handful of really steady, reliable people who show up frequently, for every hike or trail maintenance trip, there are multiple people with whom I’ve never interacted before, which is great. There’s absolutely no protocol for joining or volunteering—just reply to an email saying ‘I want to come on the hike’ and you’re in.”

Those associated with WesCFPA have personal hopes and goals for the future development of the club.

“Hopefully, in the future we could seek to tackle some of the environmental issues that Connecticut faces and employ strategies to educate the Middletown community about them,” said WesCFPA member Genelle Faulkner ’13. “We recently had a hike with students from the Middletown area, and we hope to expand our interactions in this regard as well.”

Little hopes to eventually bring the conservation and advocacy ethic of CFPA to the University community in an academic setting. Calder wants to organize more hikes and trail preservation trips. They both agree however, with deBoer’s overarching assertion that it is important to preserve this strong bond between the University and the CFPA in the upcoming years.