One of the best memories of the Overland Expo events this year was hosting the Kids Driving Course. The Overland Expo Foundation teamed up with Tread Lightly! to create an RC car driving course for hands-on learning.
future overland explorers
The world is full of beautiful and wild spaces ready to be explored. However, if these lands aren’t taken care of, they won’t be around forever. Educating the next generation about respecting and protecting these spaces is an essential step in the stewardship of public lands. The Overland Expo Foundation and Tread Lightly! believe in the future of overland travel and supporting the next generation of explorers. Together, we can ensure these wild spaces endure for years to come.
Learning how to TREAD
At each of the four Overland Expo events kids were giving the opportunity to drive an RC car through a series of obstacles and challenges. The course included stops along the way that corresponded with the TREAD pledge. The TREAD pledge is a modification of the TREAD Principles aimed at teaching kids the importance of responsible off-road travel.
Tread pledge
Travel on trails
Respect animals, plants, and people
Educate yourself, be safe, and be prepared
Always be careful with fire
Do your part
What better way to learn how to overland responsibly than with hands-on learning.
Tread Lightly! was incredibly excited to partner with Overland Expo Foundation to help plan, create and execute the Kids Education Experience at the four Overland Expo Shows in 2024. Education of young minds, and developing responsible behavior, happens at an early age. Kids learn from what they see. In partnering with Overland Expo Foundation, we believed that a fun and engaging experience that starts to teach responsible motorized-recreation behavior with both parents and children are vitally important to keeping trails and public lands open and accessible for future generations of motorized users. It was a wonderful opportunity to provide these young, show attendees with a fun and interactive program to instill the basic principles for responsible motorized recreation. By being individually responsible, and teaching our children these basic principles, collectively we can Protect the Adventure for generations to come.
Positive Impact
The Kids Driving Course was operated by a group of volunteers that dedicated their time and skills to walking the kids through the course and teaching them how to Tread Lightly!. The volunteers had a great time and loved the interaction of teaching the next generation how to preserve our public lands.
Over 350 kids and 225 parents/guardians went through the course at the four Overland Expo events. A post-expo survey was sent to each parent and the responses were outstanding. It received 4.3/5 stars and 90% would recommend the event return in 2025.
We would also like to send a huge shout out to KC Hilites for supporting the driving course. Their financial contributions helped create the obstacles and challenges.
Get involved
If you’re interested in volunteering, donating, or supporting the Kids Driving Course in 2025 please reach out! Email [email protected] for more information on how you can support the next generation of overland explorers.
