May Newsletter: An exciting summer ahead with Coombs Outdoors!
Dear Friends,
We are so excited to jump into a summer full of adventure! The Coombs Outdoors staff is getting ready to begin our biggest summer yet with more than 175 local youth in programs - 101 participants in our Activate Summer Camps, 62 participants in Engage Summer Camps, and 14 Empower high school interns working at local businesses and organizations. We have a brand new summer staff, including six former Coombs participants working as camp instructors, and exciting new programs including our first ever sleep-away camp!
As we continue to grow and expand our programs in response to feedback from our families and participants, we want to take a moment and extend our gratitude to our community. Thanks for being here and believing in our mission to create and expand access to the outdoors for our participants. Together, we will make this our best summer yet.
See you on the trails!
Jenny Wolfrom Holladay
Executive Director
Activate: A Summer of Adventure!
We could not be more excited to get a jump start on summer. Coombs Summer Camps have turned into the most desired summer activity around! With three different sessions of camp and 101 participants already enrolled, our Activate summer camps are the largest they've ever been!
Some of the activities we have planned for Activate camp include: paddle-boarding and swimming at R park, hiking in Grand Teton National Park, touring a local ranch with the Jackson Hole Land Trust, camping at Colter Bay, making music with Grand Teton Music Festival, cooking with Slow Food in the Tetons, soaking at Astoria Hot Springs, rock climbing with Exum Mountain Guides, art projects, and much more!
Engage: Trying New Things
We are gearing up (literally!) for our 3rd summer of Engage Summer Camp. Summer camps will look similar to last year for our middle school participants with a focus on planning and executing multi-day backpacking trips. We are also excited to be working with several partners to offer a few specialized weeks of camp. Here are some of our highlights!
Teton Valley Ranch Camp
For the first time ever, 40 Coombs participants will get to attend “sleep away camp” and spend 5 days and 4 nights in cabins in the woods. Teton Valley Ranch Camp received a grant from the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole to accommodate a large group of Coombs participants to attend a private week of ranch camp at their ranch in Dubois. For many Coombs kids, this will be their first opportunity to experience the magic of an overnight camp.
Snake River Days
The Snake River Fund has run Snake River Days for over 20 years. This year, they have decided to provide this week-long experience centered around the Snake River exclusively for Coombs participants. This week-long camp will focus on the Snake River and its ecosystem. Participants will learn about all things river related from hydrology to animals and invertebrates all while having fun outside. Activities will include fly fishing, a camping trip along the Snake River from rafts and the thrill of floating the Snake River Canyon!
Additional Activities
Similar to last year, we will support participants who wish to dive deeper into different summer time activities through access to existing, or our own, seasonal outdoor recreation programs. This includes our Coombs Climbing Club, the Jackson Hole Youth Mountain Bike League, and the Jackson Hole Kayak Club.
Empower: Learning Life Skills
Summer 2022 Empower Internships Program is coming in with 14 amazing participants and 7 partners.
We are so excited to offer this summer's internship opportunities with: Coombs Outdoors, Wheel Wranglers, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, Stio, JH Land Trust, Hole Food Rescue, REI, and Astoria Hot Springs. Empower Interns will develop a myriad of skills including outdoor leadership and education, bike mechanic skills, customer service, communications and marketing, event planning, educational program development, conservation, and more.
Earning these skills through internships and formal mentorship processes will Empower Interns up for success in their personal and professional adult lives. We are so thankful to our community partners for supporting these efforts!
Family Programming Opportunities through Camina Conmigo
We are excited to support and promote Camina Conmigo - a local group that was developed for for Latino adults and families who like to spend time outside. Camina Conmigo (“Walk with Me”) meetups are focused around hiking, learning about ecosystems and local trails, developing skills and learning risk management best practices, and building relationships and community. The group will host free guided hikes 3 times a month throughout the summer, with the first beginning on June 4. Follow their Instagram or Facebook group for more information!
Partner Highlight
Wheel Wranglers supports Coombs Outdoors by partnering in our Empower internship program to host several interns during the summer cohort, helping us tune our bikes, and creating access to bikes for our participants! With the help of Wheel Wranglers and the Outride Fund, we were able to purchase four new mountain bikes this year.
This new bike fleet will play an exciting role in our summer, where Coombs kids of all abilities will be able to improve their bike skills and become more confident riders. We are looking forward to creating our very own mountain bike club
Check out our new Corporate Sponsor Logo!
We have been working hard on reevaluating our relationships with our corporate sponsors to better serve our mission and our relationships. We are so excited to reveal our new Corporate Sponsors logo chart, which highlights brands and partners that have been supporting us at different levels through financial and in-kind contributions.
Interested in starting a conversation about corporate sponsorship opportunities with Coombs Outdoors? Email us below!
