Good news. You can help get kids outside from in front of your computer (you’re already here, after all).
One gear company is going philanthropic. Mountain Hardwear’s Send a Kid to Camp http://mountainhardwear.com/givesback.aspx program raises money through online clicks to support outdoor education non-profits. They’re sending funds, up to $40,000, to ten groups around the country. And all you have to do to help is click.
I was lucky enough to see first-hand how much one of the organizations makes a difference. A few years ago I spent the summer working at the head boatlady at cityWILD, one of the non-profits that’s getting funding from the program. I trained a bunch of 15 to 18-year-olds how to be raft guides, and then they spent the rest of the summer working as junior guides, helping run trips on the South Platte and Arkansas rivers.
Through the cityWILD program, which also provides more traditional outdoor experiential education, the kids, who are primarily from low-income areas of Denver, learned how to guide and how to be responsible for other people.
Over the course of the summer I watched them gain more confidence in their skills and in their authority. By August they were bossing me around. I’ve always been a firm believer in the social and mental benefits of being outside—I was once a scrawny city kid— but watching it happen in front of me was exciting and affirming.
I don’t think my experience was necessarily unique. The other groups seem to do really cool, important things as well, so I’ve been clicking every day.
The fundraiser ends next week, now is the time to get on it now.
