Siana Wong
With the recent release of our annual impact report, we're celebrating all that donors and volunteers made possible through The Mountaineers in 2022.
When I joined The Mountaineers, I didn’t expect to become so fully immersed — taking courses, instructing, leading trips, and
volunteering on committees. My climbing partners who shared adventures with me in the mountains became lasting friends off
the mountain. My outdoor community simply became my community.
Now serving on the Board and the Equity & Inclusion Committee, I’ve dived in even further to help guide our commitment to cultivate a culture of belonging by improving our policies, programs, and course curricula.
In 2022, a group of dedicated volunteers developed an Equity and Inclusion Toolkit. We brainstormed, attended member listening sessions, conducted research, and drafted content. The result was a collection of readings, resources, and reflections to educate and empower volunteers who are looking for ways to integrate equity and inclusion into courses and activities. Our hope is that these tools are both practical and meaningful, and will be updated as we learn and grow as a community.
Supporters have allowed us to continue to provide scholarships for youth and adults to access activities and courses. We also recognized that gear continues to be a primary financial barrier for people just getting started on their outdoor journey. To address this obstacle and expand the communities we serve, we made further investments in our Gear Library by launching an online reservation system, making equipment more accessible for activities like hiking, camping, or snowshoeing.
Connecting through the outdoors brings us all closer together. It brought my life partner and me together, and I hope to inspire a love for the natural world in our four-month-old daughter. When we make engaging a vibrant outdoor community our priority, we are doing more than helping people get outdoors: we are strengthening our community by helping more people feel community through inspiration and belonging.
2022 Impact: Enage a Vibrant Outdoor Community
- Cultivating a Culture of Belonging Outdoors. We continue to improve our outdoor education and move toward belonging and inclusion in the natural world. CEO Tom Vogl outlines some of the ways we promote participation, representation, and access, and calls out some of the ways we can continue to grow.
- Day Camp Lottery Improves Access to Youth Programs. As Mountaineers youth programs soared in popularity, the enrollment process had become increasingly stressful for families. The new lottery system helped to remove some of the accessibility barriers and contributed to a sharp increase in the number of kids able to participate.
- Mountain Workshops Get Youth Outside. Mountain Workshops brought more than 3,000 kids in the Greater Puget Sound area outside through day hiking, rock climbing, snowshoeing, and more in places like Ollalie State
Park, Mt. Rainier National Park, and Millersylvania State Park.
2022 titles create an inclusive and accessible outdoors
Our books engage readers of all skill levels and backgrounds to foster a vision of the outdoors that is inclusive and accessible to all. Key engagement titles in 2022 included Valley of Giants, which collects the previously untold stories of the remarkable women who shaped Yosemite climbing history; 52 Ways to Nature: Washington, which offers easy entry points to year-round adventures outdoors; and National Parks A to Z, a children’s book that cultivates an early love of nature with substantive content delivered in a whimsical style. These Mountaineers titles showcase a multifaceted approach to engagement, through broader representation, by telling untold stories, and by meeting readers of varied interests and skills wherever they may be.
The Mountaineers® is a 501(c)(3) organization supported through earned revenue and elevated through charitable contributions. Our staff work to support our seven branches (Bellingham, Everett, Foothills, Kitsap, Olympia, Seattle, and Tacoma), three lodges (Baker, Meany, and Stevens), and our Kitsap Forest Theater. Tax ID: 27-3009280. 7700 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115.
