Military Families Outdoors

What do veterans and service members want outside?

Calling all Veterans, Active Duty Service Members, National Guard, Air Guard, Reservists, spouses, caregivers, and Sierra Clubbers:

We need your ideas, your passion, your experiences, and your thoughts on what the ideal outdoors program and outdoors leadership training would like for the military and veteran community.

We want ten participants from the military community and 10 participants from the Sierra Club outings community for three different listening sessions this year:

 

February 17th-19th at Islandwood just outside of Seattle, WA

March 16th-18th will be in/near Washington, DC

April 13th-1th will be in Estes Park, CO and specifically for miitary spouses, partners, and caregivers

Sessions will start at 6 pm on Friday evening with dinner and last to Sunday lunchtime. We’ll be discussing leadership in the outdoors, outreach, and how we can build programs for and by the military and veteran community. Click here to apply and register. For more information please get in touch at stacy.bare@sierraclub.org or leave a comment below.

Your input will shape leadership-training sessions that will be held in May, June, and August.  

Whether or not you’re still in, a member of one veterans organization or another, or not at all, we need your thoughts, we need your leadership, we need your experiences…and we’ll pay for the whole thing once you get there! In extreme cases we may be able to help cover the cost of transportation to and from the event.

Here’s your chance to define what we as veterans and a military community want and need from the outdoors. We’re looking forward to your leadership! If we need to, and I hope we will, we’ll find a way to make more listening sessions and training sessions available. Following the first session in February we will open up an on-line forum on our website at www.sierraclub.org/military for your additional input.

~Stacy Bare, OIF Veteran

Military Families and Veteran Representative to the Sierra Club

"Helping America's Military and Veteran Community experience the freedom of the land they defend"

 

Who wants to go to the Everglades?

Dear Sierra Club Nation,

We have got a problem, and it seems like an awful silly problem to me, but one I’m convinced we can sort out pretty quickly.

As part of our effort to reconnect active duty service members, National Guard, reservists, and military veterans to the land they defended, we’ve partnered up with some amazing organizations to offer opportunities to get outside in amazing places.

One of those trips is in March 5-10^th in the Florida Everglades. Yes, that’s right around the corner, but yes, that’s an amazing trip with Wilderness Inquiries. The problem: we’ve still got 10 empty slots. This trip is for you, regardless if you have a physical, emotional, or mental disability, WI, will make it work for you.

I know it’s just a month away, but are you honestly telling me we cannot find 10 veterans or service members to get out and paddle on this trip? All you've got to do is get there, and pay $100.00 for a trip that normally costs more than a $1,000 and an opportunity of a lifetime is all locked up for you and nine of your closest friends. Why not call 'em up and bring out the old rifle squad and your platoon sergeant? Maybe get together the old gang from the motorpool or HHC.

Now if we cannot fill these slots, we cannot and we'll shift the trip, but let’s find out why.

If however, we can, then let’s do it! We’ve got until next week to fill this amazing trip. Send your inquiries, your veterans, your service members to Dave Haugen (himself a veteran) to dave@wildernessinquiry.org.

C’mon America…get outside and explore the ‘real’ Florida!

~Stacy Bare, OIF Veteran

Military Families and Veteran Representative to the Sierra Club

"Helping America's Military and Veteran Community experience the freedom of the land they defend"

 

 

Research Press Release: Spread the Word!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 26, 2012

Contact:

Rebecca Silver, Sierra Club, 212.791.3600 x284, rebecca.silver@sierraclub.org

Kevin Merrill, University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment, 734.417.7392, merrillk@umich.edu

 

U-M, Sierra Club to study links between outdoor experience, veterans’ mental health

SAN FRANCISCO – For six years, the Sierra Club has organized outdoor trips for American military service members, veterans and their families. Now, the national environmental group is working with the University of Michigan on a research project to measure how those trips affect veterans’ individual mental health.

U-M researchers at the School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE) will analyze the results of surveys given to about 120 veterans before and after upcoming six-day excursions. While scientific research increasingly shows a strong link between mental and health benefits and the natural environment, the Sierra Club wanted to know if its programs, which are offered at no or reduced costs, were producing the same results.

“The Sierra Club has been organizing outings with military families and veterans for years, and we know anecdotally from participants that outdoor experiences have been vital to their reintegration,” said Stacy Bare, National Military Families and Veterans Representative for Sierra Club. “Securing quantitative data that reinforces these beliefs will support our efforts to make these types of experiences available on a larger scale.”

Coordinating the research work at U-M are SNRE Professor Rachel Kaplan and research scientist Jason Duvall.

“The overall objective of this research is to explore whether contact with the natural environment is associated with improvements to mental health and psychological functioning of veterans,” Kaplan said.

The project will take about 18 months to complete, but started last fall when the surveys were written and tested. The veteran’s excursions begin in March.

Through a selective process, Sierra Club chose four partner organizations to execute quality outdoor experiences: Higher Ground (Sun Valley, Idaho); Wasatch Adaptive Sports (Snowbird, Utah); Wilderness Inquiry (Minneapolis, Minn.); and Women’s Wilderness Institute (Boulder, Colo.).  Each outing will provide at least four days of an outside experience. Some programs are free, while others require the participant to cover transportation and up to $100 for tuition.

The excursions vary from fly fishing, kayaking and whitewater rafting to backpacking and paddling. There are two courses specifically for female veterans, and one for military spouses, partners or caregivers. For dates and contact information, visithttp://sierraclub.org/military/outings.aspx.

“By now the empirical literature is substantial with numerous studies documenting the diversity of health and well-being benefits related to the nearby natural environment,” Kaplan said. “Studies examining the impact of wilderness experiences have suggested that more extended nature experiences can also offer important benefits. Given these potential benefits, exposure to natural environments and outdoor recreation may be particularly helpful to military veterans and active duty personnel since studies indicate that these individuals are more likely to experience serious mental health issues, such as depression and PTSD.”

The Sierra Club and its partner organizations will collect and maintain the data and administer the surveys. This process is designed to assure that U-M researchers cannot identify the participants. Participants will be asked to complete a survey about one-week prior to the recreation experience. Short-term changes in psychological health, social health and coping/problem-solving abilities will be assessed by asking participants to complete a survey a week after the experience.

To assess whether changes were sustained, a second post-test will be given three to four weeks after the excursion. The pre-test, initial post-test and second post-test will be administered using an online survey tool.

“How durable are any changes? Does the kind of program matter? Is the composition of the group important? Does the benefit of an outdoor program relate to the veterans’ military experiences?” Kaplan asked. “We expect this research to be a useful step in exploring such questions.”

About Military Family and Veterans Initiative:

Sierra Club's Military Family and Veterans Initiative (MFVI), formerly Military Families Outdoors (MFO) is part of Mission Outdoors, the Sierra Club’s campaign to provide access to outdoor experiences to people of all ages and backgrounds.  MFVI makes available a variety of opportunities for American Military Service Members, Veterans, and their families to experience the freedom of the land they defend.  http://www.sierraclub.org/military/

About the U-M School of Natural Resources and Environment:

The School of Natural Resources and Environment's overarching objective is to contribute to the protection of the Earth's resources and the achievement of a sustainable society. Through research, teaching, and outreach, faculty, staff and students are devoted to generating knowledge and developing policies, techniques and skills to help practitioners manage and conserve natural and environmental resources to meet the full range of human needs on a sustainable basis.  http://www.snre.umich.edu

 

Prepare the Parks for 1 Million Veterans!

Today is America’s Summit on National Parks in Washington, DC. The  Mission Outdoors Representative, Jackie Ostfeld, is attending on behalf of our team and just tweeted Director of our National Parks, Jon Jarvis as saying that, “We need to prepare parks for one million returning veterans where they can reestablish themselves, find peace and quiet.”

Glad to see that the senior leadership, at least of our Department of Interior, is starting to get it! We are honored at the Sierra Club to be working with the National Parks, and the rest of the Department of Interior to continue to expand, promote, and innovate opportunities for military service members, veterans, and their families to get outside and truly enjoy the land they fought to defend. Look in this space in a few weeks for a report on our first joint ‘Post to Parks’ initiative in Colorado where we’ll provide an opportunity for 20 Airmen and Soldiers from the Colorado Springs area to experience Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.

We have opened up our listening sessions to hopefully include one or two members of the National Park Service each and are excited about how we are truly ‘joining forces’ to make it all happen.

The bottom line is that an investment in our veterans to get outside, to reconnect with their own selves, as well as America, is a fundamental first investment in ensuring our veterans and their families can reintegrate from the combat community to the non-combat community that surrounds us every day.

Director Jarvis, on behalf of the Sierra Club Nation, our partners, and all of our Nation’s veterans, military service members, and families, we salute you. We’d stand by you too, but there’s no time to stand around…we’re already working!

~Stacy Bare, OIF Veteran

Military Families and Veteran Representative to the Sierra Club

"Helping America's Military and Veteran Community experience the freedom of the land they defend"

 

Update from Outdoor Retailer in Salt Lake City

Update from Salt Lake City! 

It has been a whirlwind two days in Salt Lake City at the Outdoor Retailer event. Imagine every gear company you’ve ever heard of, times that by one hundred, throw in a few more and put them all in trendy booths aimed to recreate the places where that gear is used, spread it out all over a massive convention center, and you’ve got what people call OR!

Throw in a handful of the uberfamous athletes who rep these brands, and you’ve got yourself an outdoor junkie’s paradise. You may have no idea who these people are, but I'm impressed! Dean Potter, Rheinhold Messner, Lynn Hill, Ed Visteurs, Conrad Anker, and Sasha DiGiulian to name a few. Click through their links, get inspired, and go get outside!

The place is massive sensory overload and you begin to wonder at the need for 16 different sock companies. How many ways can there be to make just the perfect hiking sock? And they're all amazing.

What makes the place truly fantastic, however, is that nine times out of ten, community outweighs competition in the outdoor industry. It really is a gathering of a tribe of people, committed to their passion in being outside and making that a great experience for their customers, whatever that looks like.

There are certainly some issues the Outdoor Industry could and definitely needs to tackle in a more unified manner. They do, as a whole, conservation and sustainable business practices pretty darn well, but where there is a lot of work that needs to be done is around the issue of diversity. I had the opportunity yesterday to speak on a panel about diversity and youth in the outdoors and was pleased to see that the issue of diversity was not, and is not, in the Outdoor Industry confined to race, though that certainly is a key component of the debate. I’ll be writing more about the diversity panel in future days.

There was, however, a thoughtful conversation about the need to involve more military families, service members, and veterans, as well as youth, families, and individuals from a far broader range of socioeconomic backgrounds, as well as ensuring a greater level of gender equity in the industry.

Even in 2012, the notion that the industry as a whole can make a significant impact in creating positive change around the military and veteran community still seems like a novel idea. People just did not think about. Certainly, many companies have profited from government contracts and I think are very open to the notion of giving back to veterans and military families. Many have, but more can be done.

However, before it can be done, we as members of the military and veteran community need to outline how and what that might look like. It’s how we can meet the industry halfway. Not just a hand out, but a hand up.

So, let’s start that conversation here and now, at least in the comments. How can they help? Maybe we can even get a bigger contingent of military and veterans out here for the next OR in July to share our stories and show why the Outdoor Industry should view us, the military and veteran community, our spouses, families, and kids, as the next generation of leaders.

~Stacy Bare, OIF Veteran

Military Families and Veteran Representative to the Sierra Club

"Helping America's Military and Veteran Community experience the freedom of the land they defend"

 

 

Elizabeth Kennedy's Story

Today's guest blog comes from veteran Elizabeth Kennedy. Thank you Elizabeth for the courage to share your story!

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.”
― John Muir

A couple of hospitalizations, outpatient programs, weekly therapy appointments, medication after medication, suicide became an attractive alternative, not because I wanted to die, rather I wanted the symptoms to end. I did not want to live, yet I did not want to die. So much fear in both places, being torn, simply existing.

I was becoming my own worst enemy, thinking about it all the time, fearful of a trigger in a public place; I became a recluse, a prisoner in my own home. My PTSD issues are not all service-connected, complex trauma they call it for female veterans. According to national statistics, one in three women has experienced a violent crime. So I am a statistic in both categories, considering becoming a third in the suicide category.

When I came to this place, I had a choice, to live or die. I decided to live. Sure, it may mean more pain, actually dealing with it, rather than medicating and drinking my problems away, I found no answers at the bottom of my pill and beer bottles. No one was going to do my healing for me, so while “existing” in Texas, I found a Colorado cabin on the Internet bordering the national forest, packed my stuff, and here I am.

I found my sanctuary, got my boots, got my pack, grabbed my dogs, and set off for the woods. I got out of my head and into my body. Working with my therapist and my primary care physician, I started making tremendous strides; each mile I hiked I put my past further behind me. If I felt anxiety, depression, I took a hike, letting my natural endorphins kick in, each day growing physically, mentally, and psychologically stronger, restoring my confidence.

My place is out in BFE, I heat my cabin with a wood stove, and I got back to nature and basic survival because if I got snowed in, all I could do was rely on myself. I worked on my property, prepared for winter, and hiked, no longer just existing, but living again, healing outdoors. Getting out of my mind and into my body in nature was the best decision I ever made, I chose to make an “active” recovery!

Hard to believe I never left my house, looking at where I am at today. As Muir wrote, nature did help me heal and I am growing stronger every day in every way because of the outdoors. It is hard to think about the past when hiking or snowshoeing, because you are in the present moment, heart beating with exertion, finding your natural rhythm, pole, shoe, pole, shoe. Just taking in the beauty around me as I trek through the woods, how do I get over to that rock face, hey look, deer, turkey, elk, rabbits, now this is living!!!

Crowds, traffic, noises, none of that bothers me now, no more anxiety attacks, no more flashbacks, nothing in my way now! I had the help of many along the way; I enrolled in the VA’s Vocational Rehabilitation program. My VA employment Coordinator, Jason Shireman, came up with a brilliant plan for me. Working with Troy Fuhrman, Facilities Manager at the National Park Service we set up a Non-Paid Work Experience Internship as part of the VA’s Coming Home to Work Program. This was an excellent transition for me to get back into the workforce, receiving training and applying my existing skills sets with the outdoors as my office!

I met Jeff Wolin, Lead Interpreter at Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument and learned about their Post to Parks program, a fantastic grass roots strategy to connect the military community to the outdoors. As a Park Service Volunteer/VA NPWE representative, I attended Fort Carson and VA events with several hundred people, meeting and connecting with others, that was a milestone for me while helping others.

Working as an advocate for this outstanding program, working with Operation Warfighter Active Duty Service Members, I got my life back. My past no longer holds my present captive!!! There was a light at the end of the tunnel, I had to go through it, deal with my stuff and for me the tunnel was the outdoors and I came out on the other side. Now the baggage I have is my backpack!

Healing does not have to only take place in an office, there are alternatives. The Sierra Club and Post to Parks have so many opportunities for our military community to make a choice in our healing journeys. I am just one of many whose lives have changed because of connecting with the outdoors. We have a choice, chose to get outside, put on those boots, grab your gear, and get out of your head and into your body!

Elizabeth Kennedy is an OIF/OEF Army veteran currently enrolled in the VA’s Vocational Rehabilitation Program. She is an enthusiastic and motivated veteran, sharing her experiences to motivate and inspire while working with Post to Parks program to actively engage the military community to experience the healing benefits of our public lands.

For more information:

https://www.facebook.com/Posttoparks?ref=ts#!/Posttoparks?sk=info

http://www.nps.gov/flfo/forkids/post-to-parks.htm

http://vetsuccess.gov/coming_home_to_work

 

"Helping America's Military and Veteran Community experience the freedom of the land they defend"

AS-YMCA, Missouri 2011 Family Camp

Last November, the Military Families and Veterans Initiative had the privilege to support an Armed Services YMCA Family Camp in Missour. This is their summary of the day!

 Our family camping weekend, Nov. 11- 14, 2011, was a great success.  The Sierra Club grant for $7,100 was combined with another grant for $7,000 to provide for 102 people, 22 military families, to attend camp at Camp Lakewood, a YMCA Camp in Potosi, Missouri. 

The goal of the weekend was to provide military families with an opportunity to spend time together and reconnect following a deployment.  Also, one of our families used the chance to spend valuable time together PRIOR to deployment.   

Check in was on Friday evening and each family was assigned a cabin.  T-shirts were provided for each family member and logos for both ASYMCA and Sierra Club were displayed on the shirts.  Each family developed their own schedule based on the activities offered during the weekend.  These included:  archery, riflery, zip line, wall climbing, sessions at the nature center, water ecology, horseback riding, pony riding, geocaching, and arts and crafts.  Families participated as a unit at each activity and everyone participated in a two day scavenger hunt around the property.

On Friday evening, the families were engaged in “ice breakers” and were treated to entertainment by a local magician who mesmerized the crowd. 

After breakfast on Saturday,each family moved from activity to activity based on their own schedule.  We all met for lunch and dinner.  Saturday evening we provided a camp fire with audience participation and s’mores for all to enjoy. 

Throughout the weekend, crafts and games were available for the children and families to borrow and enjoy.  Children and adults alike were seen laughing, talking and bonding with each other and other military families. 

Sunday concluded the remaining activities and lunchtime was a time to award “prizes” for the winners of the scavenger hunt.  Families were asked to complete a survey and provide us with feedback from the weekend. 

One soldier remarked, “ I saw a sign that said, Let a Kid be a Kid, and I felt like a kid this weekend.  It was great!”

A female airman from nearby Scott AFB, “I will be deploying to Korea for a year, so we used this time to spend together before I have to leave.  We had a great time.”

Another family, “This weekend has been a true blessing to our family. As a military family, our lives get very busy and hectic. This was a great opportunity for us to spend time together, try new things, and enjoy the company of many other families who are dealing with similar lives."

Almost every family tried something new for the first time.  Kids were delighted to see their parents trying the zip line or climbing the wall.  Parents were beaming with pride as their children shot an arrow or made a bullseye.  It was an amazing weekend for everyone.    

These weekends are essential for family bonding and strengthening.  Military families experience great emotional stress due to frequent deployments and change of duty stations.  I am always fielding questions regarding the next family camping weekend. 

All accommodations, meals, and activities were provided to the military families.  These 22 families had a weekend they will always remember. 

Linda Bright

Executive Director

Armed Services YMCA of Missouri

PO Box 350

Fort Leonard Wood, MO  65473

573-329-4513

ymca@cablemo.net

 

Can you spot the veteran?

Can you spot the veteran?

Reflecting back on MLK Day, I was thinking about how far we’ve come since the day after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. We’ve come a long way, but we’ve got a long way to go. Maybe it’s because I’m a veteran, but I really feel like that the military and veteran community can, and should, provide the leadership for the next leg of the journey towards achieving MLK’s glorious dream.

How many times though, as veterans, have we heard the statement, “But you don’t look like a veteran!” And right after that statement, the person who utters these words takes a step back, as if all of a sudden they are aware of some contagion that all veterans carry, or have been warned somewhere not to stand too close to veterans?

It’s a funny thing, because I’m not exactly sure what a veteran is supposed to look like either. Once in a courtroom, I heard a judge respond to a veteran who asked if he could bring in character references from his past unit make this statement, “That’s fine, but I don’t want a bunch of tattooed bikers in here causing trouble.” Because we’re all tattooed bikers evidently.

Out on the ski slopes last year, while skiing with a friend of mine who has a below the knee amputation, someone walked up to my friend and thanked him for his military service. My friend’s never been in the Army. However, from different amputees I know, it’s a familiar story. However, not all amputees are veterans.

Yesterday, I snuck into the office for a couple of volunteer meetings when the building superintendent, Paul, walked by to try and fix some blinds, and asked me why I was working on a holiday. So I told him what I was doing and he said, “The Sierra Club works with the military? But you’re not a veteran are you?” I told him I was and he responded, “Me too! I never thought the Sierra Club would hire a veteran!” But they have I told him, and was excited to tell him about David Brower, the legendary Sierra Club executive director who was also a veteran of the 10th Mountain Division in WW2. “You can never judge a book by its cover!” Paul replied. We had a good hour long conversation about what it means to be a veteran, the changes he’s seen since the Vietnam era when he served, what I’m working on, and how he could get involved.

I’ve seen Paul a hundred times since I started working at the Club. We’ve been friendly, but neither of us guessed for one reason or another that we were veterans…because even to our trained eyes, neither of us looked the part.

How must these conversations be for military families? Do military spouses get told, “But you don’t look like a military spouse?!”

So here’s the thing, if you want to know what a veteran looks like, or a military family, take a look in the mirror and there’s a good chance that your reflection is an approximation of at least one military family member or veteran somewhere in this great country of ours. That’s the beautiful thing about being a veteran or military family member. We’re all around you, we’re all around us. We’re every color, creed, orientation, gender, and we’re pretty equally dispersed along the various categories and boxes that people can use from time to time to try and divide our country. We are, in at least one very real way, that which unites our country.

Welcome Home Troops, now what??

Today's guest blogger is Heather Ehle. The founder and director of Project Sanctuary. We are excited about our partnership with Heather and our research program together with Regis University.

Project Sanctuary partnering with The Sierra Club to make a difference.

Rightfully so, the news has been full of pictures of excited families, reuniting after returning home from Iraq, tearful embraces among the Welcome Home signs. These images leave the majority of American thinking; “Ahhh, there is a happy ending”. When in fact the war may just beginning.

Repeated deployments and conditions such as Post Traumatic Stress and Traumatic Brain Injuries complicate the happily-ever-after, and often leave their mark on ALL the family members. Suicides, divorces and Veteran unemployment are all record highs.

The traditional approach to treating PTSD relies on the use of medications provided solely to the individual. What if there was an alternative method and incorporating treatment for the entire family??  Providing the family with an adaptation strategy to help break the cycle of PSTD rather than masking its symptoms. And what if, what if, we could get these families moving in the right direction…outdoors!!

Project Sanctuary offers six-day therapeutic retreats in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, hosted with YMCA’s Snow Mountain Ranch. By utilizing year round outdoor recreation, our families are allowed to break their cycle of stress, bond with other families all the while enjoying hiking, fishing, skiing, tubing and horseback riding.     

The goal is for the military family to obtain the skills necessary to integrate back into society in a healthy environment. Using year round recreational opportunities to assist with bonding, communicational skills and enhancing overall moods is a key element.   They are empowered to work through difficult issues as a family unit and continue to receive support from Project Sanctuary for two additional years.

This March, The Sierra Club, Project Sanctuary and Regis University are teaming up host ten military families for our 22^nd retreat.  This collaboration brings together the best of all organizations with the goal of conducting a formalized study proving that outdoor recreation is a viable, timely and useful tool in healing the effects of PTSD in our military families. 

So, “Welcome Home”.  Now grab a back pack, your family and hit a trail.  There is healing to be done!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Project Sanctuary is a Colorado 501C3 hosting therapeutic retreats for all military families. Retreats are lead by Licensed Professional Counselors, Recreation Therapists and Veterans.  Healthy Marriage, Financial Peace classes along with outdoor recreation are utilized in this one of a kind program. To date, Project Sanctuary has hosted 20 retreats and of our 143 families we can report zero suicides. 
For more information please visit: www.projectsanctuary.us

 

Ice Climbing for military / veterans Feb 10-12!

Today's gust blogger is Michelle Barnes, the acting Executive Director of Paradox Sports. She is discussing their organization's mission as well as our joint event on Feb 10-12. We have room for 10 veterans as well, regardless of disability. Never thought you could ice climb? You can!! Special thanks to Lourdes Irizarry for her amazing photos!

WE CAN’T WALK?  OK, WE’LL CLIMB ICE INSTEAD!

Paradox Sports Trades in Our Usual Rocks for Sheer Ice Walls at Our Winter New Hampshire and Colorado Climbing Events

There’s no hibernating by the fire this winter for Paradox Sports. We’re outside, putting our “disabilities” to good use climbing sheer walls of ice. We have two exciting ice events coming up that we’d love to brag about:

February 10-12, 2012 Paradox Sports will be ice climbing in North Conway, NH 

We will be partnering with Sierra Club’s Mission Outdoors to make this event happen! . Paradox Sports loves their mission of helping America’s Military and Veteran Community experience the freedom of the land they defend!

Register here!

March 2-4, 2012 will be the 6th annual Paradox Sports Ice Climbing Weekend in Ouray, CO

We provide ice climbing clinics for disable athletes and help them understand the adaptive equipment they need to climb.  Our athletes then take that support and turn it into magic.

“I will not give up, I’m going to the top” 

These were the words of Austin Bushnell, from our 2011 Ouray event. Austin was born with a brain deterioration condition but lives with an endless supply of determination and enthusiasm, (a common theme among our athletes). His climb was a Paradox group effort. He was assisted every step of the climb, but it was his own determination that got him to the top. He was an inspiration to everyone in the canyon that day.

We expect no less at our events this year. For more information, please contact Michelle Barnes, Acting Executive Director for Paradox Sports. Come see what we’re about as we defy gravity (and ice)!

Paradox Sports is a non-profit organization that provides inspiration, opportunities and adaptive equipment to the disabled community, empowering their pursuit of a life of excellence through human-powered outdoor sports. Paradox Sports was created by an eclectic group of individuals with a common desire to integrate the physically disabled into the outdoor community. To continue the roll of Paradox Sports in Colorado, Paradox Sports will be providing adaptive training to the disabled community across the region with the goal of developing a community around outdoor recreation and giving disabled athletes a forum to share skills and ideas. Paradox also endeavors to create linkages among able-bodied climbers and the disabled community to redefine "disability."  

Sierra Club’s Mission Outdoors Military Families and Veterans Initiative is part of the Club’s larger mission to ‘Explore, Protect, and Enjoy’ the Planet! Mission Outdoors believes all American’s have a right to get outside and the Military Families and Veterans Initiative is working to ensure that our military and veteran service members and their families can enjoy the freedom of the land they defended!

 

For more information contact:

Michelle Barnes

Acting Executive Director

303-949-6483

www.paradoxsports.org

michelle@paradoxsports.org

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

This blog is about the connection between the outdoors and our military family and veteran community, so it may seem strange to you that today’s blog is about a concert I saw a while back from Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit.

I’ve been a big Drive By Truckers fan for years, and if you like Southern influenced rock, you’ll be a fan as well. Somehow though, in the various moves over the last several years, I missed that Jason Isbell left the band and started up his own group, the 400 Unit. On the first day we were out of Iraq last December, one of my friends from back home, we were Cub Scouts together I think, sent me his song, Tour of Duty. Now, Isbell himself is not a veteran, but he seemed to capture exactly how I felt when I first came home.

At the show, a few songs before Mr. Isbell played Tour of Duty he played the song Alabama Pines. It’s a beautiful song about wanting to get home, but being stuck somewhere far away without being able to get home. The song is about an outdoor place, a vision; a landscape Isbell longs for in the song but can’t get to. Anyone else have those places they returned to when things got tough? Where are they for you?

For me, having spent four years in Mississippi immediately prior to receiving my commission in the Army, one of the places I returned to in my mind during moments of extreme stress while stationed overseas, was the backcountry in the northwestern hills of Mississippi. That’s right, the backcountry of Mississippi. One definition of backcountry I’ve heard is more than four hours away from hospital care. You can find that it in Mississippi. You can find the outdoors, wilderness, backcountry, and awe-inspiring beauty just about anywhere. There may not be as much of it as you want…but you can find it if you look.

During the show, something about the sequencing of Alabama Pines and Tour of Duty made me feel like Mr. Isbell and his fine band were playing just for the Sierra Club Mission Outdoors program, so succinctly did their messages hit home to me. Give the songs a listen, let me know what you think.

That particular time of the show closed with a moving tribute to one of Mr. Isbell’s friends who had died in Iraq. The song is titled, Dress Blues. And while this song does not have much to do with the outdoors, it has almost everything to do with our own communities. I’ve been home from Iraq for almost five years now. I’ve been to countless parades, memorial services, and funerals. Somehow though, in a crowded theater, that song, that night, was the most moving public tribute and memorial to all that we had lost, and gained, in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The crowd knew that song. I mean they really KNEW that song. People sang aloud, people sang with heart and gusto, men and women around me shed tears as the lyrics came through the sound system. Did everyone know a veteran? Had everyone really lost someone to the war? Maybe they had, maybe not, but for one moment, 500+ people in the Fox Theater cared about our veterans and that’s saying something.

I guess I should know by now to expect the unexpected, but that series of songs blew me away. If I can find wilderness in rock and roll, maybe we can all find a bit of rock and roll in wilderness…and I think that will take us a long way to Alabama pines, Mississippi hills, sunny beaches, rocky coast lines, or soaring mountain majesties, and those places…well, they’ll be our home and they were worth fighting for.

~Stacy Bare, OIF Veteran

Military Families and Veteran Representative to the Sierra Club

"Helping America's Military and Veteran Community experience the freedom of the land they defend"