Thank you to all. Our 2011 Adventure Treks season ended on Monday and we can now officially say thank you for a great year! It feels like it’s been our best year in a long time. I know it seems like forever since you left your friends and your instructors, but we haven’t stopped. This fall, we have provided outdoor and science adventures for 859 students from 14 different schools. We have integrated several of these programs into our new 126 acre summer camp facility, Camp Pinnacle, located just a mile from our office. It’s great fun to finally have our own facility for our NC programs. The Blue Ridge students got a sneak preview last summer (www.camppinnacle.com – the website is still a work in progress.)
Most importantly it’s been a very safe year. Combining our 859 school students and our 438 summer students, we ran a total of 13,100 user days. Out of 1297 students, only one student went home for an injury at Adventure Treks. (A broken collar bone incurred from falling off a mountain bike in California).While even one injury is too many and while it hurts missing our goal of zero, we are glad our injured student has healed.
I want to thank our 80 field instructors and 7 office team members who poured their energy and commitment into making this summer safe and successful. It’ been a real privilege working side by side with each one of you and I can’t thank you enough for always putting our students first and for your commitment to creating incredible and indelible experience for youth. In our next blog we will be releasing results from a University of NH research study along with our own research that shows the demonstrated positive effect that Adventure Treks has on youth. I am proud to be part of an organization that makes lives better while connecting students with nature.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank our students; we get to work with incredible kids. And I’m convinced that AT kids are pretty much the best kids in the world. It’s been an honor to have the opportunity to work with each one of you.
It’s been a great year! We’ve worked hard and we are ready for vacations of our own! Today instructors Liddell Shannon and Kara Sweeny put their kayaks in on the Headwaters of the French Broad River here in NC. They will paddle through 8 states all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. They will have a big support crew of AT friends and family for day 1. Next week, D’Mac and Niki will be traveling to Nepal to trek to Everest Base Camp; Neil is going to Chile to climb big peaks as is Callie and Kenny who are headed to Ecuador. Sandy, our administrative director is going paddling in the Everglades while John Greene is going paddling in New Zealand. The Dockendorf family will spend Thanksgiving exploring Guatemala. Many ski areas (Mammoth, Park City, Jackson Hole, Big Sky to name a few) are now getting their Adventure Treks instructors and ski patrollers back for the winter.
We remain hard at work, collecting and implementing ideas to make summer 2012 even better. We are adding a new trip to Colorado, Opening Camp Pinnacle and much more. We are excited that Mike P. will be joining our office team full time in January. Close to 200 students have already signed up for 2012 and a few trips are already almost full.
Thanks for your role in summer 2011 and we sure hope you will be part of great adventures with us in 2012!
Best, Dock