"Expedition: Find Bigfoot" Article

Spectrum News Austin has a new article up on the "Bigfoot expedition" that took place in Round Rock on the 15th:

"ROUND ROCK, Texas - The city of Round Rock hosted Expedition: Find Bigfoot Saturday night.

"It was an event culminating all the recent Bigfoot 'sightings' in the area. Kids came out in droves for their chance to spot Bigfoot in Round Rock Saturday night at the city's Expedition: Find Bigfoot event.

"The kids said they heard all about the recent 'sightings' and just had to join in on the hunt.

"'Right when I heard of Bigfoot, I just got so interested in it,' said Reed Bales, an eight-year old.

"The Round Rock Parks and Recreation Department is glad its Bigfoot campaign is working. They launched it last month.

"'We really created this Bigfoot expedition program to get kids outdoors and off video games and so far, it has really worked. Our parks rangers report hundreds, if not thousands, of family members walking through our trails and coming to our parks in Round Rock,' said Roger Heaney, a communications specialist with the city.

"Saturday night's event was a celebration of the campaign and all the recent 'sightings.' The parks department even brought in expert Bigfoot trackers to help families search. The experts scour the country for 10 months out of the year, looking for proof of the creature.

 "'I've had seven encounters up close and personal in my tenure of 50 years. The ones that we've had really close were the ones in Paris, Texas,' said Tom Biscardi, founder of CEO of Search for Bigfoot.

"The kids who showed up to search in Round Rock had their own personal encounter with the hairy beast. Eight-year-old Bales used one word to describe what he saw.

"'Awesome. It has to be real,' said Bales."

While I think it's great that these kids are interested in Bigfoot, they of course didn't "find" anything because  there's no Bigfoot in Round Rock. And Tom Biscardi is no Bigfoot "expert" and I wouldn't have brought him in as he has been a central player in several hoaxes over the years (and each time he said he'd been duped, too. Whatever. Either he was involved or he falls for anything, and I'm better on the former).

If the kids are really interested in Bigfoot, don't fake stories… get them some books on it, go to places where there actually has been activity, take them to a Bigfoot conference or a library talk… with actual researchers, maybe.