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Orlando Rodriguez had no idea four years ago that a foray into outdoor recreational equipment rentals and guided trips would become a full-time adventure and food truck business.
“In 2019, we tested the waters and now have seen it balloon into a full-time endeavor,” Rodriguez said at a stakeholder meeting at Lycoming College on Wednesday, where the director of the new state Office of Outdoor Recreation was listening.
Today, Rodriguez has a flourishing retail shop in Muncy that sells equipment, new and preowned, including Gilson Snow snowboards, and during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, decided to improvise with the Rich Port Café food truck.
Participants of the stakeholder meeting were given an opportunity to try the Puerto Rican inspired dishes of Rich Port Adventure Co. and Café.
As a member of the Pennsylvania Wilds Cooperative, the native of Puerto Rico, who spent some of his formidable years growing up in Idaho, started a small and diverse business offering equipment rentals, shuttle services, and guided trips.
Through his connection with Jason Fink, president and CEO of the Williamsport-Lycoming Chamber of Commerce and the staff there, he had been given connections to make the business grow.
For Abbie Peters, representing the PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship, the center also experiences the benefits of helping small businesses in places such as Benezette, Elk County, where an estimated 500,000 visitors annually see elk herds in full rut, and state parks like Cherry Springs in Potter County where one can experience the darkest skies and the Milky Way in all its evening glory.
Outdoor recreation enthusiasts are benefiting from digital technology and platforms getting word out on places such as Facebook, Twitter and others.
Dave Hertwig, of New Trail Brewing Co., Williamsport, said the company was the fastest growing brewery in the U.S. last year. That drew applause in the room at the college’s Krapf Gateway Center. “We love the outdoors and we love beer,” Hertwig’s company logo states. “We encourage our friends and neighbors to spend more quality time outdoors experiencing the natural environment around us,” the business’s website states.
New Trail Brewing connects with a wide range of individuals and organizations in the area dedicated to elevating the quality of, and access to, the region’s nearby outdoor resources.
For example, the company partnered with the state Parks and Forests Foundation on The New Trail State Park Series, which are beers named after parks and forests in Pennsylvania, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the named park or its Friends Group.
Panelist at the stakeholder meeting, Kim Wheeler, executive director of the SEDA-Council of Governments, said these types of conversations were overdue and have been on the radar screen of the 11-county quasi-governmental agency based in Lewisburg for a while.
Such asset development can be taken advantage of for economic vitality and quality of life, she noted, because outdoor recreation provides reasons for people to stay and to expand their businesses and increase civic tourism.
When individuals and families select where they want to live and call their own, or when corporations and industrial decisions are made, outdoor recreation is among the top three reasons for selecting a community and home. It is on par with the area’s market access, energy cost and corporate taxes as reasons for people wanting to live or move to a specific area in Pennsylvania.
“It is a key economic driver,” Fink said of outdoor recreation. He added that he was glad to see some unfamiliar faces at the meeting as an indicator that the meeting was attracting individuals from a wide region of the state.
A kinship exists between outdoor recreation and the arts and humanities as they can be consumed together to create a better quality of life for participants.
As for the dollars and cents aspect of outdoor recreation, in 2021 it added $14 billion to the state economy, or one-sixth of the economy. It is the sixth largest economy in the U.S. providing for 152,000 jobs.
The stakeholder meetings have been held in Philadelphia, Easton, York, Warren and will be in Scranton, Erie, Pittsburgh and Johnstown.
The Recreation Engagement Coalition, a brain trust of 50 statewide leaders, who helped to develop draft strategies and goals to guide how the state should support the outdoor economy, formed last fall.
While robust and diverse, the state’s outdoor industry remains under-developed, under-coordinated and was largely invisible as an economic sector.
With support from Gov. Josh Shapiro, the office is focusing on helping to organize the outdoor workforce, and connecting outdoor recreation with the state’s quality of life and experience for residents and visitors.
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