ELKO -- Nevada Outdoor School has been busy around Elko in the past year, expanding its offices to Idaho Street.

"I think the most that we've expanded has been internally," Toril Tapia, a spokesperson, said.

"We've been very grateful in onboarding a lot of AmeriCorps members," she said. "In Winnemucca, our program coordinator, Ash Fayal, was able to get into a significant amount of classrooms compared to last year's overall. We've also increased our number of individuals who have participated in the off-highway vehicle safety online course."

Since the school's online safety certification program -- at www.offroad-ed.com/nevada/ -- launched in March 2023, 78 people have completed it.

"We've also increased the amount of OHV helmets that we've been able to distribute to Nevada youth," Tapia added.

"I think our OHV program was one of the most successful programs this last year. That's something that we've kind of hit the ground running for this coming year, is just increasing our presence in the classroom, making sure that we're getting lids on kids and the older kids understand the importance of wearing a helmet," she said. "We really are striving for helmet safety to be something you don't even think about, like wearing a a seat belt."

The coming year will focus on getting into high school programs, Tapia said.

"Specifically, I think we've come to the understanding that it is important to instill safety in the younger generations, but the high school kids are the ones that are most actively riding OHV vehicles, and so we're working on getting into health classrooms and sharing our presentations with them."

In addition, Nevada Outdoor School is working with Renown Health to provide "the numbers behind the incidents that happen in Nevada."

"Renown Health has this fantastic infographic that just shows how few trauma centers are in Nevada. If any of the Nevada youth in the middle of Nevada are injured, they're in for a long drive before they can seek care," she explained.

The school has also brought its education into Elko County School District classes -- thanks to the efforts of Elko Programs Coordinator Kim Pay, with Nature In My World, an outdoor learning program.

"We saw a total of 37 teachers and served over 700 students," Pay said. "We learned anything from the signs of fall to the water cycle to animal adaptations and artifacts."

In addition, Nevada Outdoor School has two employees at the California Trail Interpretive Center -- program coordinator Macy Rohr and marketer and program coordinator Paul Gregory.

"We kind of help as a backbone, whether we are sending our AmeriCorps members to help out or help promote it," Tapia said. "But those two handle everything for the California Trail Interpretive Center independently."

Several Elko organizations contributed to the school's $1.1 million in yearly revenue for 2024: The City of Elko, Elko Bighorns Unlimited, Elko County Commission and Elko County School District contributed in total to over 2% of the school's annual revenue. Nevada Gold Mines provided around 4% and the Lamoille Summit Trail System provided around 7%.

Their most significant expense for the year was providing stipends to AmeriCorps members, which took up 25% of expenses. About 9% of the year's expenses were spent on the Lamoille Summit Trail System.

This trail expenditure has happened because Nevada Outdoor School is stepping up to improve the quality of outdoor recreation areas in rural Elko County, through stewarding Lamoille trails after the trails lost government funding, Pay said.