#OptOutside Everyday

A few years ago, REI’s CEO started a program called #OptOutside where he closed all of his stores on Black Friday and paid his employees to recreate.  

In 2018, #OptOutside spread to more than 170 organizations and on November 29, 2019, it was even bigger. 

Over the years, #OptOutside has become more than merely going outside on Black Friday, but to taking action and making life choices that are with respect to the outside.  To facilitate this goal, this year REI compiled a list of 52 weekly challenges for how each of us can #OptOutside every day.   

At Nevada Outdoor School, it is our mission to “…inspire…responsible stewardship of our habitat.” Sometimes it is hard to see what we can do to care for the natural world outside of a facilitated conservation service project.   

This list gives people power with simple ideas and background information to understand the positive changes we can make through simple choices. 

Here are December’s four to get you started.

Week 1:

Make cleaning up a part of your daily habits.

Week 2:

Go bagless.  Make reusable bags for all shopping.

Week 3:

Opt out of junk mail.

Week 4:

Forgo traditional wrapping paper to cut down on waste this holiday season.

For more information about how each of these actions affect the natural world and to learn about the other 48 challenges from REI please go to

https://www.rei.com/blog/stewardship/the-opt-to-act-plan

Happy Trails!

Reflections on AmeriCorps Service - FCAA

The Frontier Community Action Agency is the non-profit organization that I serve as an AmeriCorps Member. Serving such a great organization that helps so many different people is so amazing. Being able to see all of the individuals that gain so much from our programs is truly rewarding. 

Right now, during the holidays is when we get the busiest. Whether people come in for applications, commodities, Project Santa, Thanksgiving basket sign ups or simply for help filling out or reading applications, we are SLAMMED. 

For Project Santa last year over 300 kids were able to receive gifts that maybe wouldn't have been able to receive any. I love kids and being able to know tons of kids will receive gifts on Christmas morning, warms my heart. We have been crazy busy this year with this program so hopefully that number will increase. Another great thing I would like to talk about is commodities that we give out the last week of every month. During this week, we get PACKED to say the least. We have had to start distributing the Friday before to minimize waiting times for the upcoming Monday. People were waiting for over an hour to receive food because of how many people we had coming through our doors. For the month of the September, we served 125 households and 323 individuals and we only keep getting busier. For the month of November, during commodities, we have been giving Thanksgiving baskets to families of 2 or more that need a little extra food for Thanksgiving dinner. We received 120 of those baskets. 

These programs are only a couple of the programs and help we offer. So far, serving as an AmeriCorps member has helped me gain experience in many different aspects such as office work, social work, and community service, helping me further expand my knowledge of what I truly want to do in the future. 

 

Jenny Torres