Sierra Club Wins Outdoor Industry Association’s Ambassador Award

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Sierra Club Wins Outdoor Industry Association’s Ambassador Award

Salt Lake City, UT. The Outdoor Industry Association announced on January 23 that the Sierra Club is the winner of their 2008 Ambassador Award. The Ambassador Award recognizes a company that has made significant and ongoing achievements toward the growth of participation in outdoor activities.

Sierra Club Youth Services programs are promoted in every issue of Sierra magazine, the national publication of the Sierra Club.

“The Sierra Club is thrilled to accept this award on behalf of our 1.3 million members and supporters,” said Conservation Director Bruce Hamilton. “It’s critical to show the next generation the joys of the great outdoors.

Young people today have fewer opportunities to get outside and explore; spending time outdoors improves kids’ test scores and helps fight childhood obesity. A new venture for Sierra Club we’re very proud of is Operation Purple Camp where we provided $1.2 million in support of summer camps for the children of armed service veterans serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And a very exciting project is one Sierra Club promoted in New Mexico to levy a 1% sales tax on the sale of TVs and video games to fund No Child Left Inside outdoor programs.”

The Outdoor Industry Association honored important contributions made by the Sierra Club to help the next generation of environmentalists learn how to explore, enjoy, and protect the planet. The awards committee recognized the Sierra Club’s efforts to help youth cultivate a love of nature through Inner City Outings, Building Bridges to the Outdoors, and Sierra Student Coalition programs.

The Sierra Club’s Inner City Outings Program is a volunteer-led program that provides low-income, inner-city youth with trips to wilderness. Today, a dedicated core of leaders located in approximately 50 cities across the United States work with local social service agencies and schools to provide wilderness experiences for young people who otherwise might not have them.

The Building Bridges to the Outdoors Program engages public officials to provide funding to programs that help get children outside. The Building Bridges program also promotes the positive benefits of outdoor experiences on children’s academic achievement, especially science and math.

Another branch of the Club’s efforts to promote outdoor exploration and conservation is the Sierra Student Coalition, a broad network of high
school and college students working to protect the environment, tackle global warming and promote social justice. The SSC supports groups at over 300 schools in the U.S. and Puerto Rico through award-winning trainings, direct mentorship and resource development that helps students plan and implement winning campaigns to protect people and the planet.

Many of Sierra’s outdoor industry advertisers have partnered with the Sierra Club Youth Services programs to put products into the hands of the volunteer leaders and participants in support of these important youth-oriented Sierra Club programs.

ABOUT SIERRA:
Go to sierraclub.org/sierra to view the January/ February 2008 issue online. A bimonthly, our on-line media kit is available at sierraclub.org/ sierra/mediakit. SIERRA is published by the Sierra Club, the oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization
in America, with more than 760,000 members nation-wide. In 1893 the organization issued the first Sierra Club Bulletin, which became SIERRA in 1977. The bulk of SIERRA’s paid circulation comes from readers who spend an average of $36 for membership in the Sierra Club. A recent study found that SIERRA readers consider the magazine to be the number-one benefit of club membership. With multiple readers per copy, SIERRA reaches a total audience of more than 1.3 million readers.
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