It’s virtually impossible to enjoy outdoor recreation in the Pikes Peak region without relying on the many nonprofit organizations that call the region home.
Whether it is building trails or building community, or cleaning up messes left behind or taking care of others, or advancing the big picture view of area recreation or the smaller view at a more local level, or providing financial support for repairs and improvements to parks or preserving and conserving land for future use, there is a non-profit – often staffed completely by volunteers or with a bare minimum of paid help – that does it.
Land managers have come to depend on nonprofits, either in the form of a “friends” group dedicated to a specific park or groups with a wider scope, to help them do what budgetary, staffing or time constraints simply don’t allow them to do.
Of course, all of this work costs money.
The yearly Give Campaign, currently underway through the end of the year, is an excellent opportunity to help support the groups that make outdoor recreation in our area possible.
In the “Great Outdoors” category, the largest in the campaign with 11 nonprofits, there are groups dedicated to building new trails, such as the Rocky Mountain Field Institute and Medicine Wheel Trail Advocates (which also does a significant amount of advocacy work with public land agencies), or groups that support parks financially, such as Friends of Monument Valley Park and Garden of the Gods Foundation.
There are groups who dedicate themselves to public advocacy and coalition-building, such as the Pikes Peak Outdoor Recreation Alliance and the Trails and Open Space Coalition.
The Palmer Land Conservancy preserves land not only for recreation but also for agriculture, by the use of conservation easements.
Richards Rubbish Roundup, created by former Colorado Springs City Councilperson Richard Skorman, has cleaned up more than 80,000 lbs. of trash along Fountain Creek.
Blackpackers is opening up outdoor recreation to underrepresented groups, while Code4Outdoor is geared towards supporting first responders through a connection with outdoor recreation, and the Women’s Mountain Biking Association of Colorado Springs is building a community of women through the shared experience of mountain biking.
Some outdoors-oriented groups are in other categories, such as Wild Connections, a land and wildlife conservation group, in the “Big Ideas” category; Catamount Institute, which does great work connecting kids with the outdoors, in the “Inspired Learning” category; and Project Healing Waters, which helps to heal veterans through the art of fly-fishing, in the “Veterans and Their Families” category.
I have featured many of these groups on my podcast over the years as a media partner with Give Pikes Peak, including this year and you can find those episodes at HikingBob.com/podcasts.
There are many other non-profits involved with the Give Campaign doing all kinds of great work for the community. Check out all of the groups and donate what you can – no amount is too small – at givepikespeak.org.
Be Good. Do Good Things. Give.
