Last Saturday I had the incredible honor of being recognized as “2023 Outstanding Bighorn Teacher” by the National Bighorn Sheep Center in beautiful Dubois, WY. It was for my work teaching kids (and kids at heart) about bighorn sheep and their conservation needs.

For someone who used to cut pictures of bighorns out of Sports Afield, Field and Stream and Outdoor Life and paste them into a scrapbook when he was a little boy this is a huge deal.

But something equally special happened Saturday night. Two little kids who I later found out were son and daughter of the new center director were doing an animal game for kids. As typical for me when I see kids, I went and talked with them about their favorite animals.

They asked me what my favorite American animal was and I said, “bighorn”.

When I got my award I had the chance to speak for a minute and then I walked to the back of the room to shoot a few pics for social media. The little boy I had talked to walked up to me and gave me this little plastic bighorn ram.

“We only had one of these and I saved it for you. Congratulations sir, I figured you might like this.”

This really touched my heart and reinforces what it’s all about-making an impact for kids and wild sheep.

I’m grateful to the National Bighorn Sheep Center for the honor and to Sara Bridge (pictured here with me) for bringing me out to Camp Bighorn this summer to teach the kids about bighorns and conservation.

Chester Moore

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