This may be the first time you have read this column on my website or perhaps you have been looking at it for decades. My website is actually a back up plan for my newspapers to publish each week's new adventure. I have never charged for you the reader to look at it and this week I need a very large favor and I am going to ask you to forward what I am about to write to everyone that you know.

 On June 15th my world flipped upside down when Michelle Chiaro, my girlfriend passed away unexpectedly.  My daughter Selina asked by email
if all 65 papers that run this column would be ok if I took four weeks off and in that time we would run columns from the 80s and 90s.  Though
a couple were hesitant about running old material, everyone agreed that they would stick with me as I was not going to take off any time if it
meant that I would lose even one paper.

I have written for the papers in Portage, Baraboo, Reedsberg, Wisconsin Dells, Mauston, and Beaver Dam since 1992 and have always had
an excellent working relationship with this group. My pay is 21.87 per week, per paper and has been since 2012.

 On Friday, July 15th I was driving home from a Celebration of Life for Michelle and I was told that this group was letting my column go due
to cost cutbacks. My friends this news could not have come at a worse time and unless this can be remedied, An Outdoorsman's Journal is about
to just become a memory.

I was told that I could write an "exclusive column" just for these papers and my pay would be $5.00 per week, per paper with a max pay of $30.00 and they may not run it each week.

 I am the founder of Kids And Mentors Outdoors and have been the President since 2007.  We have chapters in Poynette, Beaver Dam, Baraboo,
and New Lisbon as well as other parts of the state. I have served our area without hesitation all my life and during the worst month of my
life a new employee that does not live in our neck of the woods makes this decision.

Here is where you can help and it can come in two ways. I have to find new publications to make up for the loss. I can hold out for a max
of five months before I will have to give a up a way of life unlike anyones that I know of anywhere.

 Perhaps you could politely call and ask your friends to call, either Aaron Ferguson at 440-334/0497 or Phil Brinkman at 608-252/6153.  
Please tell them why you want this column back in these papers. I can assure you that the staff at these papers wants An Outdoorsman's Journal
in their local paper.

 I have several friends that own car dealerships, one that owns a farm implement dealership, and many others that sell insurance that advertise in these these publications that would like to talk to there ad representative before they do their annual advertising budget.

 In all honesty my friends, please make these calls and ask your friends and family to do the same.

 On this website I will keep you informed as to how this progresses.

 Your friend,

Mark G Walters

An Outdoorsman's Journal

Follow along each week on the adventures of Mark Walters, a syndicated outdoor adventure columnist who lives in Necedah, Wisconsin. He began writing his column, An Outdoorsman's Journal, in 1989 which includes hunting, fishing, lots of canoeing, and backpacking. He currently writes for 60 newspapers on a weekly basis. He hopes you enjoy reading about his adventures!

Mark Walters recognized a need for a nonprofit organization in which adult members, who have passed a background check, are able to take children on outdoors activities. This vision has become KAMO (Kids And Mentors Outdoors).

Want more information on KAMO? Go >

Did you know...

An Outdoorsman's Journal