In a country as generous as this one is, it’s still so awesome to encounter people and organizations who are content to just give it all away.
It was an honor to represent Outward Bound last week at the celebration of Newman’s Own Foundation having successfully given away $300,000,000. Or, if they hadn’t given it away by the start of the evening, they had by the time the event ended, and we had an additional $100,000 to support our veterans’ courses.
- NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 03: (L-R, front row)) Clea Newman, James Naughton, Joanne Woodward, Joan Williams, and Pam Papay with grant recipients at Newman’s Own “Over the Moon” Celebration of 300 million in charitable giving on November 3, 2010 in New York City. (Photo by Gary Gershoff/WireImage for Newman’s Own)
For more than 25 years, Outward Bound has been supporting veterans of the armed services with wilderness courses designed especially for them. Backpacking, whitewater courses, sailing, dogsledding and rock climbing provide a full range of challenges for veterans to choose from and all paid for by our donors. Our more experienced instructors lead these courses and, now with a growing number of veterans who have participated and want to be engaged with us, we often have veterans trained as instructors in support. The course itself is not very different from any of our challenge courses. The learning experience comes from the power of the challenge, in and of itself, and also the metaphor it represents for life’s challenges. What makes these courses different is what these soldiers bring to the course and the kind of teamwork that can be established. They share a common experience in a combat zone and the trepidation that can accompany the return to one’s ‘other life’ (family, work) where few others will understand what they’ve been through. More often than not, the ‘challenge experience’ creates the kind of bond among the crew that allows these feelings to come forward. The soldiers help each other, with our instructors and Mother Nature facilitating.
Newman’s Own joins the Sierra Club Foundation, Lockheed Martin, the Anschutz Foundation and so many others in supporting now more than 2,000 veterans on course in the last three years. We are proud to be doing this work and have the opinion that much more is needed in their support… especially for those who are wounded or suffering from PTSD. If you are my age… 63… (and most of you reading this won’t even come close), you remember all to well the treatment received by Vietnam veterans. It’s up to all of us to ensure that that dark period in our history is not repeated.
John Read is the President and CEO of Outward Bound USA. His experience with Outward Bound dates back to 1992 when he went on his first of fifteen wilderness courses. John is married and has three children and four grandchildren. All three children – Kirk, Trevor and Lolly have experienced an Outward Bound course. Newsweek Magazine honored John as one of fifteen individuals that make America great. See John talk about his favorite moment on expedition with Outward Bound.
