In early April I will embark on my longest and craziest running adventure to date. I’ll be attempting to traverse the entire stretch of the Appalachian Trail in the great Old Line State, from the PA border to the WV border. For 42 miles, I’ll be putting my body to its greatest test yet. Can I run this distance in a day? Can I find the motivation to complete this effort almost entirely alone? We shall see.

This isn’t a race. It’s a completely self-motivated running effort that has kept me active throughout the long, cold COVID winter. With races canceled in 2020, and most cancelled or modified for the spring of 2021, my training has been an exercise in self-motivation. A clearing of the head. A reason to move every week.

As part of my running effort, I wanted to raise money for an organization that I see doing good in the outdoors world. Because the outdoors have done so much for me, I want to give back to an organization providing opportunities for others to also benefit from the outdoors.

City Kids Wilderness Project is a 501(c)3 organization based here in Washington, DC. City Kids uses the power of outdoor experiences to help arm the youth of DC with the skills and resources they need to set goals and work towards achieving their dreams.

Here is an overview of City Kids. I hope you consider donating to my fundraiser: https://www.facebook.com/donate/3903392459780876/

Since 1996, City Kids has been serving youth from DC. Their founder started City Kids as an experiential program to teach children how to be prepared for life beyond learning possible in a traditional classroom. City Kids provides DC youth with life changing opportunities to help them learn, grow, and build the skills they need to set goals and work towards their dreams.

City Kids enrolls 20 new 6th graders every year and supports them through a six year or longer process to realize their individual potential, and to set and begin to implement individualized future goals. During the school year they are based in DC and provide after school and weekend outdoor adventure programming as well as job training and college preparation programming. In the summer they move to Jackson, WY where they run three sessions of summer camp, as well as career exploration and job training programming for the older youth.

They use experiential education and outdoor adventure experiences as a lab to help children learn the values of plan, prepare, proceed, and to build their resiliency, broaden their sense of personal possibility, and to build the skills they need to work well with others as both team leaders and team members.

Age cohorts move from Rangers & Mountaineers (age 11-13, focus on self-reliance, personal responsibility, and sociability), Elite (age 14-15, focus on sense of possibility and perseverance), Leadership (age 15-16, focus on leadership and life skills), and Job Experience Training (age 15-18, positive vision for the future, career exploration). Outdoor activities throughout the years includes backpacking, canoeing, horseback riding, backcountry hiking, exploration of historical and cultural exhibits, week-long kayaking trips, white water rafting, 24-hour solo trips, rock climbing, and more.

The youth then transfer what they learn from these experiences to their real lives to help them pursue academic, career, and personal achievements. In the past three years, over 95 percent of their high school youth have graduated, in comparison, DC has less than a 65 percent graduation rate.

Learn more about City Kids programs, here: https://citykidsdc.org/program-overview/

Donate to my fundraiser, here: https://www.facebook.com/donate/3903392459780876/