How is it already late September and officially fall?
It seems like it was only a few weeks ago that teams were returning with stories and photos from their special end-of-year outings, many of them overnights like backpacking to Talapus Lake, whitewater rafting in Leavenworth or exploring the Hood Canal on the Olympic Peninsula. Just last weekend we held our New Leader Training event at Snoqualmie Pass where we trained twenty-nine enthusiastic new volunteer leaders and officially launched Seattle ICO’s 24th season of connecting local youth with the amazing outdoor experiences we’re privy to in the Pacific Northwest! As we focus on the future and year ahead, it’s important to take a moment to assess and reflect on the outstanding year we had, not only to celebrate our successes (because, let’s face it, every time a child steps beyond the trailhead for the first time, someone is winning) but to focus our efforts and intentions for the year ahead.
During the 2014-2015 school year, Seattle ICO provided 56 outdoor experiences to over 650 youth with activities ranging from overnight backpacking, to visits to salmon hatcheries to exploring Blake Island. We continue to support 9 area schools in the Seattle & Tukwila School Districts and hope to have the volunteer and financial resources to expand to a 10th school soon. We had 100 active volunteers supporting these outings, sharing their time, energy, and passion for the outdoors with the students.
In addition to supporting the outings, our volunteers worked tirelessly to write grants, coordinate fundraising efforts, plan social events, and organize our gear locker in order to ensure our organization continues to operate successfully. Our 2014-2015 year was funded in part by grants from The Seattle Foundation, Tulalip Tribe Charitable Funds and the Islands Fund as well as personal donations and a generous fundraising match donation from past anonymous volunteers. This was our second year participating in The Seattle Foundation’s Give Big drive in May and we have you to thank for making this so successful – in just 24 hours we raised the equivalent of one of our school team’s annual outings budgets from generous donor support. Helly Hansen supplied our youth with boxes of brand new winter wear – from ski jackets to snow pants to hats and gloves – and Seattle Backpacker Magazine allowed us to guest-post on their website to promote the mission of connecting more youth with nature.
We also had an award-winning year on the national and local level. The Sierra Club Foundation recognized our fundraising and PR efforts by awarding Seattle ICO with the Denny and Ida Wilcher Award for outstanding work in membership development and fund-raising for conservation projects. Special thanks to volunteers Sara Toledo, Jonathan Burnham and several others for spearheading that effort. The Kids Outside Alliance, which shines the spotlight on local nonprofit organizations that connect youth with the outdoors, also honored Seattle ICO as one of their three inaugural awardees.
Along with the hard work that our volunteers put in, we also had a little fun this year by forming two all-volunteer teams for Ski to Sea, a multi-sport relay race held in Bellingham, WA. While we may have finished in the middle of the pack when it came to our finishing times, we dominated in the costume category with all of our racers dressed to represent their 'Spirit Animal' during the race. Lions were spotted on mountain trails, dragonflies, eagles and sea creatures pedaled bikes, banana slugs kayaked and dinosaurs were seen canoeing down the Nooksack River.
Looking forward to the 2015-2016 school year, we’ve identified several areas of focus. We want to continue to connect and stay in touch with our alumni volunteers through our blog, our e-newsletters and social events where we can all meet and share stories in person. We also want to expand our visibility in the communities we serve through participating in school and neighborhood events. Service trips to protect and preserve the outdoor environment will be a focus this year and each team is challenged to host at least one outing that is service-oriented through clean-up efforts, trail maintenance or reforestation projects among others.
Seattle ICO has vacancies in a few key leadership positions – most notably in the roles of Co-Chair and Records Keeper – and need to fill these spaces with dedicated volunteers to keep our organization healthy and moving forward. If you have been involved in the past but no longer have the ability to lead outings and possess organizational and leadership skills, these opportunities may be right up your alley. Assistance with writing grants and developing content for our blog and newsletters is always welcome as well; we have a talented and motivated Grant Writing team in place and are attempting to secure close to 80% of our operating budget from grant funding. Fundraising events will continue to be the focus of our community engagement strategy, but we want current volunteers to focus on planning and leading successful trips for as many area youth as possible.
Lastly, a special thanks to departing Co-Chair Jay Bradshaw who initiated lots of positive change throughout his two-year tenure. Jay's organization and passion were great factors in the success that Seattle ICO experienced in recent years.
Thank you for reading and for supporting the mission of Seattle ICO. Our first youth outings are occurring this weekend; we’re excited for the upcoming year and look forward to seeing you out on the trails!
May your boots be muddy and your summits sunny,
Kirsten Gardner
ICO Chair