Making a big change
You ever pause on the summit of a just-hiked mountain and soak in the landscape as it rolls out beneath you? You ever wake up to a symphony of owl calls while you camped in a tent? Stand in a gurgling river and follow a random bubble as it drifts downstream? Strolled away from a late-night campfire to look up at the Milky Way as it spread across the night sky?
For all the awe that nature inspires, fewer than half of Americans take part in an outdoor recreation activity each year despite study after study that reaffirms the physical and mental value of spending time outdoors. And for people who live in under-resourced communities, the percentage of people who spend time recreating in the great outdoors falls far below the national figure.
Big City Mountaineers is trying to change what is referred to by folks in the outdoor industry as “the adventure gap” and we’re proud to be a BCM sponsor to hopefully help close that gap. Founded in 1990, BCM is a non-profit with a simple mission: instill critical life skills in under-resourced youth through transformative wilderness mentoring experiences.
That means taking kids from underserved or at-risk communities and bringing them into the outdoors where life lessons develop when hiking trails get steep, campsites get wet, blisters develop and bugs bite. Nature is one of the best classrooms there is, and it’s an unchartered classroom where the curriculum can change at a moment’s notice.
"You see students come out of this feeling more empowered, more confident about themselves and their abilities," says a BCM mentor in a video SOG has collaboratively worked on with the Colorado-based non-profit.
You might wonder why we're the only knife company working with BCM. Besides the fact that we wholeheartedly embrace their mission, we also know that one of the keys of developing lifelong healthy people with a well-rounded conservation ethic is to start them young. BCM does that across the county, and with programs near SOG's headquarters like the Seattle Nativity School and The Boys and Girls Club of Bellevue.
At SOG, we take pride in sponsoring worthwhile and meaningful organizations like BCM. We hope that every SOG users gets a chance to revel in the wonders of nature this summer. It's good for the soul.
