Balance, and the ability to maintain it, is crucial to being successful while skiing, cycling, rock climbing or kayaking. It’s also a crucial skill when dealing with the “winter” that we’ve just had here in the Pacific Northwest with snow levels ended up being 20% of normal.
The “winter” of 2015, weather-wise, will go down in history as frankly, a terrible one. While the East Coast was being pummeled by snowstorm after snowstorm, the West Coast really struggled. This summer, we should all be concerned about our fish, firefighters and farmers.
But for me, this past season will also go down as a tremendous one! Not because of the weather – oh no – but rather, in spite of it! It was a tremendous year because of the indomitable spirit that I saw demonstrated day-in and day-out by our participants, their family members, volunteers and staff as they worked to find balance for our lessons and programs.
As you all know, I’m a big fan of the outdoors and I don’t think the fact that it’s winter put anyone off doing crazy activities like they would in the summer. I love everything from fishing to cycling to kayaking in the winter. If you haven’t done this before then I would recommend looking at this guide: https://pumpupboats.com/winter-kayaking-guide/ — it will help you greatly if you want to give it a go! But my favorite thing to do in the winter is skiing. I’ve loved it ever since I was a child.
I first started skiing at Snoqualmie Pass when I was nine years old (I’m 51 now); in over 40 years of skiing I’ve skied and worked to find and sustain my balance while skiing and snowboarding in a whole mix of different conditions. Sometimes with great success – sometimes, not so much (smile)! I’m sure that I’ve skied in the rain far more times than I have on Bluebird days.
Invariably for me, though, the weather isn’t the key factor for me having a great time in the mountains. No, it’s far more often who I’m fortunate enough to share the experience with that determines just how wide my smile will be.
Our mountain partners The Summit at Snoqualmie and Stevens Pass really gave it their all to help provide balance for us and make this past season possible. Mid-season when The Summit finally had to close their ops due to lack of snow, we were fortunate enough to be able to move many of Outdoors for All’s lessons to Stevens Pass.
We were able to keep our organization’s balance and provide meaningful experiences in the mountains for hundreds of kids and adults with disabilities — thanks to the support of Stevens Pass and thanks to nearly 500 winter volunteers.
Now, we’re faced with a significant challenge coming out of this past “winter” season – to sustain Outdoors for All’s organizational and financial balance. The troubling weather pattern meant extra expenses needed to be incurred to deliver operations in different locations, move equipment, and coordinate different bus routes. It also meant significantly reduced revenue for our annual winter fundraiser, the Outdoors for All Spree. (We had more than two inches of rain on the day of the Spree; Mother Nature we think was crying clown tears for us that day!)
Now, to sustain our balance as an organization we’re counting on supporters like you to help make up for lost revenue and extra costs that created an expected $42,000 winter quarter deficit. We hope that our supporters will consider an extra gift this March – or maybe part of your Federal Tax Refund? – to support Outdoors for All and help us keep our balance.
To the many hundreds of participants, family members and volunteers involved in our winter operations – thank you. Thank you for staying flexible and working to stay balanced all season long as we gave it our all to provide you with the best winter season of operations that we could.
Thank you for considering a gift, too, to help keep Outdoors for All in balance and well-prepared for a full spring season of meaningful outdoor recreation experiences.
See you on the cycling paths and hiking trails this spring!
Ed