Range Club Activities

Range Club at the University of Idaho participates in many activities and events, ranging from events hosted by the University, by the College of Natural Resources or the College of Agriculture and Life Science, or by the Range Club itself.

One of the main offerings of Range Club are general club meetings. These almost always include a portion of the meeting being designated to business, while the other portion is used as a way for the club members to bond and forge connections with one another. Some examples of these fun meetings include team-building activities such as poker games, hide-n-seek, game nights, watching range-related documentaries with popcorn, etc. We have also had professional meetings in which educational speakers presented on website design techniques, personal and career finances, and range-related careers and other opportunities. 

Range Club participates in many fundraising events, such as helping out the University of Idaho by cleaning up the ICCU Arena after basketball games and the Memorial Gym after volleyball games. We also have the unique opportunity to create the table centerpieces for the College of Natural Resources Awards Banquet that occurs every spring semester. Other fundraising opportunities have been hosted by Range Club itself, such as our Pancake Feeds which we host a couple of times a semester to feed students during busy mornings for an affordable price. Another Range Club hosted event, Christmas on the Range, provides free lunch to those in the College of Natural Resources, and this year we also have a raffle alongside this event. A few final fundraising activities we’ve participated in are helping faculty with yard work and planning a garage sale where all proceeds go to Range Club. 

To round out our list of activities and events, Range Club also participates in promotional events, such as the Welcome Back BBQ hosted by the College of Natural Resources, the Fall Festival and CALS Days hosted by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Palousafest hosted by the University of Idaho, and other recruitment events at the university such as UIdaho Bound and Envision UIdaho. These events help promote Range Club and gain new members to join the club. 

Range Club also has adopted a two-mile section of highway in Troy, ID, and the club maintains this section of highway by cleaning up trash and hopefully soon planting wildflowers along it. Another volunteer opportunity that Range Club participates in is the annual Taylor Trip, which has just begun again after taking a few years' break. This trip takes eight club members, flown in on backcountry planes, to the Taylor Wilderness Research Station for a few days where they participate in work that helps to prepare the Taylor Ranch for another season of research. This work includes things such as prescribed burning and building fence. 

When faced with the question of “What does Range Club do?”, it is extremely hard to summarize all of the activities that Range Club participates in without losing some of the amazing things we do in that summary. I believe that the amount and quality of events that Range Club participates in is the perfect balance of benefitting the club as a whole and benefitting club members which is not seen in many other clubs and organizations. 

Yours truly, 

Kayla Hickey-Smith

Range Club 2023-2024