BOLD Alumni Mountaineering Team looks upon Mt. Olympus, the icy peak they will summit a week later.

Dudley Edmondson taught this group of young men photogprahy and video skills on the Alpine Lakes Fishing and Backpacking expedition. 

3.3.10 BOLD expands our scholarship program to cover 80 students this summer, or 55%of our total student body. Scholarship announcements were sent out today to teachers, counselors, and youth workers across Washington State.  Download our scholarship award form here and send it to a teacher or counselor so they can help a deserving young man.

3.1.10 Sometimes the best studies prove what we already know: This New York Times article reveals research about how consistent exercise not only leads to longer life but happier and more graceful aging with higher cognitive function, greater mobility and greater happiness.  It also is important to start consistent exercise routines when you are young.

2.20.10 YMCA BOLD to Partner with Lakeside Schools LEEP program: For decades LEEP has been the premier academic bridge program for low-income students during the summer of 8th grade.  YMCA BOLD and Passages Northwest will now be running a 4 day backpacking and rock climbing expedition to help push LEEP students out of their comfort zone, develop greater self-confidence and self-efficacy, and learn the communication and leadership skills needed for a sucessful high school career.

1.26.10 If your kids are awake they are probally online: In this fascinating New York Times article it is revealed that young people are now spending nearly every waking minute in front of a smartphone, computer or television screen according to a Kaiser Family Foundation study.  Click here to read the article.

12.10.09 BOLD Mountain School Alumni Dinner: At 6:30 pm all BOLD alumni are invited back for a celebration of their accomplishments this past summer.  Join us for a night of slideshows, stories and a preview of next season's expeditions.  For more info download the invitation here.

12.2.09 The Moral Call of the Wild: Researchers determine that connection to nature and the outdoors changes an individual's values by providing them with a greater capacity for change in their own life and greater aspirations for personal development.  Does this make BOLD a moral imperative? Click here for the Scientific American article.

11.18.09 Children and Nature Network and Richard Louv just released an extensive study on Nature Deficit Disorder (NDD) and how our children are affected. Check out the article Children’s Nature Deficit: What We Know – and Don’t Know here.

10.20.09 Conservation movement thretened by decline in outdoor recreation: Two articles have come out this year that paint a frightning picture of the future of the environmental movement.  In this National Academy of Sciences article Peter Karelva documents the recent decline in outdoor recreation, especially among youth.  This decline is then highlighted in the study entitled "The Impact of Nature Experience on the Willingness to Support Conservation" where it is shown that connecting with nature at an early age is important in the creation of conservation values.  Does this make BOLD an environmental imperative?

8.1.09 The Forest Service and the AD Council work to recconect kids with nature: In an effort to connect the nations youth with their public lands the forest service and the AD Council have launched an advertizing campaighn to do just that.  Check out their website at: http://www.discovertheforest.org/ Despite this campaign the Forest Service still won't provide permits for organizations such as the YMCA, the Boys and Girls Club, or Seattle Parks and Recreation to bring youth to our local forests.  Will this new effort change this?

7.18.09 BOLD Aluimni Team Summits Mt. Olympus! The brochure description simply read: "long days, big mountains, terrible weather. Glory Upon Return." After a 2 am wake up and 14 days of training and preperation the all alumni team, many of whom were on their 3rd summer, summited Mt. Olympus this morning, the highest peak in the Olympic range.  Check out photos from their expeditions here.

3.18.09 - Diversity in the Outdoors Tour: Join famed environmental and human rights activist Winona LaDuke and celebrated photographer and educator Subhankar Banerjee at the Rainier Beach High School (8815 Seward Park Ave. S, Seattle, WA 98118) on March 18th at 7:00 pm for a celebration of diversity in the outdoors. This is a FREE event.

To download the flyer for this event click here. (pdf)

To watch a clip of Winona click here.

To watch a clip of Subhankar click here.

At the age of 18, Winona LaDuke spoke in front of the United Nations regarding Native American issues and since has become known as a voice for Native American economic and environmental concerns throughout the United States and internationally. She was the recipient of the 1989 International Reebok Human Rights Award and in 1995 was named one of "50 leaders" for the future by Time Magazine. An award winning author of numerous books and articles including Recovering the Sacred: The Power of Naming and Claiming (2005) and Last Standing Woman (1997) Winona continues her work as the founding director of the White Earth Land Recovery Project, the co-chair of the Indigenous Women’s Network and organizer of Honor the Earth National Tour.

Indian born artist-educator-activist Subhankar Banerjee uses photography to raise awareness about issues that threaten the health and well-being of our planet. Giving up a lucrative computer science career in 2000 Subhankar spent two years in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska pursuing his passion for photography. His Arctic photographs have been exhibited in nearly forty exhibitions in the United States and Europe, including the Smithsonian, the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, and in the group exhibition IMPACT: Living in The Age of Climate Change that will open in Copenhagen, Denmark at the Danish National Gallery of Art. In addition to his numerous books and articles, his photographs have been published in over one-hundred magazines and newspapers including The New York Review of Books and Vanity Fair. Samples of his photography can be found here. An avid hiker and outdoorsman, Subhankar is excited to share his work and passion with others.

This is a presentation of Sierra Club’s Building Bridges to the Outdoors Project, the YMCA of Greater Seattle and Passages Northwest