Fact: Eastern Mountain Sports is a chain store selling outdoors gear.

Fact: Dennis Morang and his staff in Augusta aren't a bunch of clock-punching paycheck hounds.

They climb mountains in the dead of winter. Snowshoe and kayak, hike and fish, bike and run. And, best of all, they're all devoted community members. It's what makes it so easy to see the local EMS branch as a whole lot more than a place to get a new backpack.

This weekend, people across central Maine will have the chance to see firsthand just how committed these guys are to making the entire outdoors experience here at home even better. Club Day is the store's way to drum up donations and volunteer time for groups like the Pine Tree State Arboretum and the Kennebec Messalonskee Trails. Without money and help, the organizations don't exist.

Morang wants us to join his staff and get out and do something for the outdoors here at home.

"It's for the general public and telling them, 'Hey, get out there,' " Morang said. "This is the playground up here -- we have the woods, the lakes, the trails, all the things we love to do. There's lots of good stuff in the works here, and this Club Day just kicks it all off."

Read the complete story in today's Kennebec Journal.

--TB