Wednesday, December 31, 2008

A Year to Remember

Seattle, WA

It has been quite a year to remember for the Sierra Club's Building Bridges to the Outdoors Program. We have had a complete staff transition but through all of this we have helped our partners get out over 20,000 underserved children outside accross the country. As happy as we are with our volume numbers the real value that I have observed is in some of the great young people who have had life changing experiences through the Building Bridges to the Outdoors Program. In New Mexico I saw Maya Quintana from the Zia Pueblo south of Santa Fe had never spent the night outdoors until she became involved in the Santa Fe Mountain Center's www.sf-mc.com outdoor programs. This experience helped Maya begin to sense her heritage and how important the outdoors was for her family. All the way accross the country at the Bronx Lab School in New York City we helped engage over ten young people in attending the joint Sierra Student Coalition and BBTO joint SPROG near San Juan, Puerto Rico. This was the first time any of the young people at the Bronx Lab School had an opportunity to visit Puerto Rico and learn about thier heritage. These experiences change lives and I am so proud that our program played a role in this.

We held three major events in Washington state, New Mexico and Chicago. These events have helped raise the profile of outdoor education and built important new alliances to showcase how connecting children with the outdoors can help children's health, their academic performence and give them leadership and build self-esteem to help all of our communities. The Crenshaw High School Eco Club in Los Angeles who has been a partner from 2002 is now the largest after-school program at Crenshaw with over 400 members. Building Bridges to the Outdoors has become a leader in the movement to connect children with the outdoors but 2009 is going to be a critical year in moving our issue forward.

With the election of President Barack Obama things in Washington are going to move at a faster pace then ever before. It is going to be critical to allign the issue of connecting children with the outdoors with service and creating new green jobs so young people in all of our communities have an opportunity to have a career in a field that not only provides them with a high quality of life but also helps our country become the leader in the fight against global warming.

I am so proud of all of the great work of our staff and volunteers have done in 2008 and also want to take a moment to remember former Sierra Club organizer Shannon Harps who tragically passed last New Years eve.

So many more children are getting outside then when we started five years ago and I am seeing more diverse partners engaged on this issue. That being said the time is now to work together to move this issue forward.