Supporting Youth in Nature and Transforming Lives, One Person at a Time - Giving Tuesday 2025
Breaking Barriers to the Outdoors Through Education Nature's Way
Help Us Keep Our Youth Connected to Nature
Like thousands of nonprofits, we use #GivingTuesday, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, as our biggest fundraiser - a counter balance to the intense focus on consumerism seen in Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Our #GivingTuesday goal is to support our nature-based youth mentoring programs in Yosemite and the Eastern Sierra with Atwater High School, Bishop Middle School Continuation Day class, Big Pine 6th grade class, Keith Bright Juvenile High, Long Beach High School, CASA from San Francisco and Merced.
We build and maintain nature connections with our youth through various activities like: hiking, climbing, camping, back packing, lake swimming and paddle boarding, stewardship work with the Yosemite National Park Service and and gardening work with the Bishop Paiute Tribe. Additionally, through art and culturally relevant activities with C5 Studio in Bishop we are bringing our youth together through conversations, journaling, reflections and storytelling about how to connect to the natural world around us and explore its depths.
The Sacred Rok model is all about meaningful and longterm relationships. We are seeking funding to support our ongoing relationships with our youth. Our programs are free to the youth participants and the funding we seek would go directly to cover costs of running trips: insurance, transportation, food, park fees, gear/equipment.
The outdoor experiences we facilitate have such a longstanding and deep impact on the youth. In their own words youth have shards their feelings from som of our experiences:
"I never imagined it to be such an amazing experience but they proved me wrong."
"I loved the entire experience. We went to some very cool spots & hiked like the waterfall when we first got into the park. I learned so much about nature!"
" My favorite part of the experience was swimming, as well as seeing a different side to nature that I don’t feel can be seen elsewhere."
With your help, together we can further our commitment to supporting these youth build their nature connections and in finding their own unique voices. Please consider donating this holiday season.
With Respect,
Ron Kauk, Executive Director
Katie Lambert, Chief Operating Officer