United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers International President Kinsey Robinson (center, with wife Mona) was presented with the USA’s Lifetime Achievement Award by (from left) USA Director of Membership, Marketing and Communications Brian Dowler, USA Director of Union Relations Walt Ingram, USA President and CEO Scott Vance, AFL-CIO President and USA Board of Directors Chair Richard Trumka and USA Director of Conservation and Community Outreach Forrest Parker.
The Union Sportsmen’s Alliance (USA) is proud to announce that one of its co-founders and current board members, Kinsey Robinson, international president of the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers, has been honored with the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
The award recognizes Robinson’s leadership and service to the USA going back to the very beginning. In 2002 he was among a handful of union leaders who recognized that they should provide union members something beyond a secure future through collective bargaining—something that touched their personal and family lives in a meaningful way.
“Kinsey Robinson is one of the founding fathers of the USA,” said USA CEO and Executive Director Scott Vance. “He’s one of the guys who came up with the idea of a union-based conservation organization.”
“He’s responsible for the focus of the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance,” added Tom Buffenbarger, retired president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. “Bringing together like-minded people from across the labor movement who love the outdoors.”
The idea that was born in ’02 became a reality in 2007 with the launch of the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance. Today the organization boasts nearly 300,000 members, each with the common goal of preserving North America’s outdoor heritage.
“Union members understand the value of conservation and giving back to their local communities,” said Robinson, “And it makes me proud that they are willing to take up the challenge of protecting and restoring our natural environment.”
Under the USA’s Work Boots on the Ground (WBG) program, union members donate their time and skills to restore and improve public recreational lands and waters in their communities, as well as to organize youth conservation and fishing activities, such as the Get Youth Outdoors Day events Robinson feels might be most important of all.
Robinson instructs a young shooter on the finer points of firearms handling at a USA Get Youth Outdoors Day event.
“Kinsey Robinson is the one who initiated our youth program at USA,” said AFL-CIO President and USA Board Chair Richard Trumka. “And he’s done more to help it reach young people than anybody else out there.”
Robinson sees it as a debt people today must pay to ensure the future.
“We owe it to our youth to pass on our traditions and heritage of hunting, fishing and spending time in the great outdoors,” he said. “If we don’t preserve wildlife and the environment, they, and their own children, won’t have it to enjoy.”
Getting kids involved at an early age is a key component to the process, he added.
“It’s important for them to understand how that heritage plays into conservation; how it’s important to the animals, the environment and the air we all breathe,” he said. “They will become the voters and the people who will set the direction in the future. That’s why we must spend so much time with them now. It’s a great responsibility.”
As a longtime USA board member and current board treasurer, Robinson has, and does, play a vital role in setting policy and mapping out organizational goals. He’s also a familiar face, volunteer and participant at USA events across the country.
“Kinsey means so much to the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance,” said Vance. “We can’t thank him enough for what he’s done for the USA over the years, but the Lifetime Achievement Award is one way we can express how much we appreciate him.”
“I’m extremely honored,” said Robinson upon receiving the award, which was presented at the organization’s recent Fundraiser Gala in Washington, D.C. “The people who make up the USA are very special, and while I’m deeply involved in the conservation mission, knowing the type of people who came together to honor me—well, it just makes it that much better.”
