At Sierra Club Outdoors, we have a lean staff who supports, through an extensive network of amazing volunteers, about 5,000 volunteer leaders spread out through three programs that connect 250,000 people outdoors each year.
Our volunteers are EVERYTHING to the way we do work at the Sierra Club. We received this beautiful testimony from Shawnte about one of our leaders in the Wilderness Travel Course (WTC) and wanted to share it with y'all, the Sierra Club Outdoor Nation about Shawnte getting into another WTC course:
Yeah, I'm kinda full-on excited about all of this - honestly, a year ago I had no idea the Sierra Club did so many outings and that it was all volunteer-run…and that it was so much fun. I do so much hiking / backpacking / adventuring on my own, but truth be told, I've always stuck to the same things I know, with the same people I know, and I'm so excited to branch out and try a bunch of new things with new people! Honestly, having the Carey's Castle trip be my first experience trip outside of WTC was AWESOME - you are a fantastic leader and a fun person to be around, the trip was just the right amount of exertion vs relaxation, and the rest of the group was really great - it really gave me a good perspective on what it could be like to take a leadership role and offer other people those kinds of experiences (hopefully!) As much as I take my friends hiking and encourage them to try new things, I'm excited to kind of formalize that a bit more :)
This experience, this kind of joy and love for the outdoors is yours for the taking whether your young or old, live near parks or not, are a military family or veteran or not, and all across our beautiful country--thanks to our volunteers!
We'd love to see you outside soon!