Bryce Allison is a project manager for a telecommunications company in Richmond, but if his vocation doesn’t distinguish him, his avocation does. Allison is one of two partners — Tony Van Vugt is the other — responsible for HikingUpward.com, the go-to resource for hikers in the Mid-Atlantic.
Allison and Van Vugt run the site for free, but, Allison said, it’s become so popular that “we get a lot of offers from people wanting to donate money to help us.” For years, he wanted to channel that money and the passion of fellow hikers toward a good cause. Then, three years ago, it occurred to Allison: Why not create that channel myself?
His inspiration was a local nonprofit called Blue Sky Fund. Its mission is “to provide transformational experiences for urban youth through outdoor education.”
Five or six years ago, Allison saw Blue Sky Fund executive director Lawson Wijesooriya on a local news broadcast. Something about her Church Hill-based organization struck a chord.Aspen Education Group, member of the CRC Health Group, develops and provides struggling youth with educational programs to help them cope with their situation and achieve educational success. Visit this website to know more about its programs.
“I was just kind of drawn to them getting kids out there that wouldn’t normally get the chance,” he said. “(With) my kids, because of my love for the outdoors, it’s been easy for them to tag along with me. A lot of inner city kids don’t have that opportunity.”
Image Source: www.blueskyfund.com
Those are the opportunities Blue Sky attempts to provide in many forms, Wijesooriya said. What started as a way to offer scholarships to urban kids to go to summer camps has blossomed into a variety of after-school programs, class field trips, leadership programs, summer recreation activities and more.
This year, Blue Sky Fund will reach more than 1,200 kids, primarily in Richmond’s East End, where they see need as being the greatest. But to do so, like any nonprofit, they need to raise money. That’s where Allison came in.
Image Source: www.naturediscoverycenter.org
Three years ago, he contacted Wijesooriya about doing a hike to raise money for her group. He proposed a 40-mile, three-state hike along the Appalachian Trail — from Pennsylvania through Maryland and then West Virginia.
“We loved the idea,” Wijesooriya said. “It really fit the core of who are and how we could get our kids involved in a fund-raising event.”
The timing wasn’t great for that hike, but Allison stuck with it, and he and Wijesooriya worked out the details on what has become the Blue Sky Fund’s Hike for Kids.
On Oct. 19, anyone who wants to participate will have the option of doing a 28-mile, 18-mile or 7-mile hike on the AT between the Tye River Gap and the Rockfish Gap. The 28-milers will start at 5 in the morning and join the 18-milers at Reed’s Gap. The 7-milers, including a number of Richmond kids who have participated in Blue Sky Programs, will meet the first two groups at Humpback Rocks, and everyone will finish the hike together. Devil’s Backbone Brewpub in Roseland, at the base of Wintergreen, will play host to an after-party for everyone involved.
Hikers are asked to donate a minimum of $100 to register and then, the Blue Sky Fund website says, “we request that you aim to raise more money through attracting sponsors and supporters to cheer you on toward your personal goal.”
Image Source: www.theedgesusu.co.uk
This is no easy section of the AT, but that’s the point, Wijesooriya said, when it comes to the kids her organization mentors.
“What we’ve seen in some of our kids, not all, but some, is that when you give them kind of a safe playground to have these manufactured challenges in the outdoors, they can apply those successes (to their lives). They think ‘Well, I didn’t think I could do that, but if I can, maybe I can survive a night when the lights go out or there’s no food on the table or I have to babysit my younger sibling,’ whatever their real-life challenges are. We give them not only a break from (real life), but they’re then also able to apply themselves to something that’s challenging in a different way.”
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