Thank You for Your Year-End Support
46 expeditions.
25 overnight camps.
More year-round activities.
A Leadership Development Program for alumni.
Thanks to you, 2020 will give youth more outdoor access.
The way that you relate to the outdoors and the natural world is unique to you.
You might have gotten outside from an early age, or maybe you didn’t discover the importance of time outdoors until later in life. You might have time to spend outside every weekend, or maybe you only get outside once a year. Whether you’re outside testing your physical limits or looking to nature for perspective, your relationship with the outdoors is yours and yours alone.
The youth of Big City Mountaineers usually haven’t had the opportunity to relate to the natural world in the same way. Barriers to outdoor access – expensive gear, lack of transportaion, few community resources for outdoor knowledge or skill – make it harder for any relationship with the outdoors to blossom.
But on a Big City Mountaineers expedition, they get space and time to nurture their relationship with the outdoors. What grows in those seven days is unique to them – and can continue to grow for the rest of their lives.
Dhalma, for example, deepened her relationship with nature on her 2015 expedition. Looking back, she spoke with us about what her BCM trip meant to her:
“I think it’s an amazing experience to go through as a teenager, because it truly shows you a bigger picture of our small world that we live in on a daily basis. It shows you that there’s endless possibilities. Once you are climbing a mountain, and you stop and you look back and you see, just… an amazing park, or mountains, or trees, wherever you are, that will just show you that there’s bigger things than just your daily life. It will also make you realize: how do we not want to save this?”
You contributed so much in 2019 – your volunteer time, your Summit for Someone fundraising efforts, your gifts. And because of you, more youth will get to create their own relationships with the outdoors.
We’re inspired by your dedication, and excited by all we can accomplish together in 2020.
Thank you for giving outdoor access to youth!
Bryan Martin
Executive Director, Big City Mountaineers