Timothy Beaumont, a teacher at Covington Elementary School in Fort Wayne, Ind., was awarded first place in the National Wild Turkey Federation's 2007 Conservation Educator of the Year program.

The award program, started in 2002, recognizes outstanding teachers who demonstrate innovative teaching techniques using educational conservation materials provided through the NWTF and their Wild About Turkey Education Box. Each year, three teachers receive a plaque and a grant from the NWTF to fund a conservation education project for the following year.

Beaumont teaches fourth graders at Covington Elementary, where he has introduced youth to the outdoors and conservation using the wild turkey for the past eight years. He uses the NWTF's Wild About Turkey Education Box in his classroom to address his curriculum standards and help his students prepare for their annual Thanksgiving "Turkey Talk" school-wide assembly program, attended by 700 students. The program incorporates history, the wild turkey and its biology and behavior, as well as hunting. In conjunction with this program his students have raised $2,500 through raffle tickets to donate to the Harvest Food Bank.

"I enjoyed everything about the Education Box," said Beaumont. "It was nice to have options, my students love turkeys even though we don't have many where we live in Indiana."

The NWTF's Wild About Turkey Education Box provides teachers with materials that tell the story of the wild turkey's restoration in an exciting and colorful way. These materials help educators teach students about wildlife, natural history, biology and conservation.

"Teaching students to appreciate the outdoors is important to continue America's time honored conservation history," said Christine Rolka, NWTF education coordinator. "Through our Wild About Turkey Education boxes, students learn about conservation and the amazing comeback story of the wild turkey."

The education box is a scaled replica of the turkey transport box used by wildlife agencies. Inside, the box is filled with teaching tools including complete set of multi-curriculum lesson plans, a full-color bulletin board kit, an entertaining video and multimedia CD/ROM, a poster, reference material and keepsakes for the students.

Since 1999, NWTF local chapters have donated more than 25,000 Wild About Turkey Education boxes and reached more than 2.1 million students with the story of the wild turkey.

Click here to apply for the Educator of the Year Award.