Maryland Adventure Program
This university’s Maryland Adventure Program will be able to offer students additional outdoor events at lower prices thanks to a $3,000 grant from The Outdoor Foundation and Aramark.
Amanda Even, MAP assistant director who worked on the grant application, said the money will help increase student awareness and involvement in the program.
“With the grant, we hope to inspire more students to recreate outdoors, and also to engage new audiences who might not commonly recreate outdoors to do that,” Even said. “And also, throughout that, [help] to develop a passion in others to take care of the natural world and our public lands.”
The Outdoor Foundation and Aramark chose five schools out of the 30 that applied to receive the $3,000 grants, said Stasia Raines, director of marketing and communications for The Outdoor Foundation.
The winning universities — Colorado State University, University of Arizona, University of California Merced, University of Utah and this university — were announced Dec. 15, with the money intended for use this semester.
“[The Outdoor Foundation] really focuses on engaging young people and really focuses mainly on the college market,” said Raines, adding that this is the first time the two organizations have paired together to fund a grant program. “And [Aramark] wanted to invest in getting young people in parks and also getting young people outdoors and active.”
Jake Crouse, an adventure trip leader and lead student coordinator for this grant, said MAP, which hosts about 18 outings a semester with eight to 12 students on each trip, plans to hold new activities this semester and reduce the usual $20 or $30 participation fee to about $5.
The first event, an outdoor session to brainstorm ways to get more people engaged in outdoor activities, took place Feb. 27, and Crouse said there are plans to reconvene at Great Falls National Park to continue discussions when the weather is nicer. “We invited offices from across campus to come to MAP, and we discussed some of the barriers that exist for individuals to participate in outdoor recreation, and ways in which we can overcome those barriers,” said Crouse, a junior mathematics and psychology major.
Crouse said MAP is planning discounted activities during Earth Week, including an afternoon mountain biking clinic, a run to Greenbelt National Park, a bike ride along Lake Artemesia and the Anacostia tributaries, an evening paddle along the Potomac River to Theodore Roosevelt Island and a clean-and-climb at Eppley Recreation Center.
MAP also will offer a backpacking trip during spring break to Shenandoah National Park, and it offers an adaptive paddling program in the ERC for children and adults with complex medical conditions who are from the HSC Pediatric Center in Washington, Even said. Veteran Student Life and Terp Vets are also involved in this program.
“We do that once a month, trying to engage youth,” Even said. “And also for veterans, helping them to find a new way to serve.”
Raines said it is important to The Outdoor Foundation and Aramark that students lead the outdoor movement and come up with new ideas to get others involved.
“We wanted the ideas to include college students’ ideas,” Raines said. “We didn’t want this to come from the top down, we really wanted this to be something college students were looking at for themselves and for their peers.”
All universities that received the grants are expected to follow certain guidelines, such as hosting an outdoor meet-up, visiting national parks and engaging in outdoor initiatives with local youth, Raines said. Reports are due by the end of May as proof of adherence to the guidelines.
“We’re really asking them to start activating now,” Raines said.
