We commend Hughesville High School for its support of a fly fishing club.

A diverse assortment of extracurricular activities in schools offers our teenagers better opportunities to become well-rounded citizens.

The fly fishing club offered at Hughesville High School gives teens a chance to explore a recreational endeavor that gets them outside and active — addressing a well-worn complaint that too many young people today are too glued to screens, inside and sedentary.

As the club’s faculty adviser, David Weigle, told the Sun-Gazette for an article in last weekend’s edition, fly fishing is a life-long sport that teens can pursue well into adulthood, keeping them active and healthy long after graduation caps have been tossed into the air.

It may well one day be an activity that the club members of today pass along to their children and grandchildren.

“The time and memories spent with my father on the stream are precious to me,” Weigle shared with the Sun-Gazette. “There’s just an absolute joy and satisfaction not only from fishing but being in the stream itself. It’s not just fishing. For me personally, it’s the whole experience. It’s the anticipation of waking up early and going into the stream. … The sound of the stream and the birds, the feel of the water.”

The club also encourages an appreciation of nature and the richness nature brings to our region. This in turn provides a better foundation for understanding the importance of conservation efforts in our region and state.

While many teenagers and children in our communities develop that sense of conservation’s importance from families who hunt, hike or fish, a club in a high school offers the chance to young people who may not have that background.

The opportunity to offer young people a different avenue to experience the world in a healthy, active way and to learn about the importance of the outdoors even if their own individual backgrounds wouldn’t necessarily have aligned to afford them that chance — it’s worth pausing for a moment to appreciate.