ADVENTURE CREW
6981 Dearwester Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45236 www.adventurecrew.org

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Organizations Filed Purposes: The mission of Adventure Crew is to open the doors of nature for city teens to strengthen their connection with self and others and create the next generation of healthy outdoor enthusiasts and environmental stewards. We connect city teens to the outdoors through positive, engaging and free recreation, education and conservation activities. Our team is committed to making a difference in the lives of underserved youth by creating a safe environment for healthy physical, social and emotional development while fostering good stewardship of green spaces and better understanding of the environment.

School-Based Outdoor Adventure ProgramAdventure Crew has operated school-based clubs since spring of 2015. Since that time, the Crew has grown over 300% in serving city youth with adventures in nature, to include such activities as hiking, biking, kayaking, skiing, orienteering and camping. Every month it's a new adventure, and every weekend it's a different group of schools so at a minimum, students have an opportunity once a month to go on an adventure in nature. Adventure Crew had record-breaking total attendance averages of 103 students every weekend from among its 24 schools throughout the Cincinnati Public School and Northern Kentucky districts (Bellevue, Dayton, Ludlow, Newport and Covington). Adventure Crew has paid teacher advisers serving in all of its schools to help coordinate and recruit students for each month's adventures.We had a roster of over 900 students going into the 2019-2020 school year, the majority of whom are inner-city, disadvantaged students who would otherwise never have the opportunity to experience nature and its intrinsic rewards. Adventure Crew ensures all youth have equal access and the chance to be introduced to nature so they grow not only in their care for our earth, but also in their confidence and creativity.In school year 2019-2020, and despite the interruption of Covid-19 to our programming, Adventure Crew provided 1,944 outdoor experiences for students and their advisers. Adventures included kayaking in September, zip line and mountain biking in October, hiking in November, skating in December, winter hikes and skills building in January and February, and Zoo, Aquarium, and Field Station educational programs in March. Adventure Crew covered all the costs of these outdoor experiences to include transportation to and from the adventure location, a healthy lunch and starting continental breakfast, and adventure access fees and gear. Adventure Crew grew its partnership base further with the addition of Thomas Moore College Field Station and fishing derbies co-hosted with Little Miami Conservancy.With the end of field trips in April for our schools' students, we pivoted our programming to maintain weekend "outings" online. Adventure In Place ran for nine consecutive weeks and included personally delivered, socially distanced, Crew Care Packages to all those students who engaged with us through the online nature prompts. Through Adventure In Place, we were able to maintain a connection with our CREW kids and still motivate them to find nature wherever they were.

Community Based Outdoor Adventure ProgramDue to the pandemic, Adventure Crew was unable to provide its typical summer services to other non-profit youth services organizations in the Greater Cincinnati area; however, we were able to continue our foster program serving 21 high-risk teens throughout the year in partnership with Lighthouse Youth Services and still include them in our Adventure in Place seriesAdventure Crew co-hosted four Fishing Derbies at Lake Isabella for Crew students and our community partnership with Little Miami Conservancy in the month of September. Additionally, we conducted river "sweeps" as competitions among our students during each of our September kayaking adventures, improving the water ways and instilling a pride in Crew students to care for our natural resources.Our greatest community endeavor in 2019-2020 was forming The Ohio River Recreation Trail (ORRT) initiated in partnership with National Park Service Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance Programs, OKI (Ohio Kentucky Indiana Regional Council of Governments), River City Paddle Spports in Lousville and REI Co-Op, with the goal of creating an official National Water Trail from Portsmouth, Ohio through Cincinnati and Louisville to West Point, Kentucky. Our work included leading the development of a sophosticated digital guide of the Ohio River for recreational safety, history, and points of interest along the ORRT.

Adventure Crew relies on a number of fundraising events and activities to support student programming and supplement grants from foundations and individual / business donations. Largest among these events is our annual Paddlefest, attracting more than 2,000 paddlers from 20 different states to float the Great Ohio River; in fact, Paddlefest remains the nation's largest paddling event to date. Our August 3, 2019 Paddlefest again topped $100,000 in net earnings for Adventure Crew, all of which supports connecting city teens to nature. Adventure Crew students can also participate in Paddlefest, whether as volunteers or as paddlers, where they come to witness first-hand the impact of our organization in the community and our powerful river system.

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