Volunteer Appreciation Dinner - 2020

Please join The Mountaineers for an evening to celebrate all of our incredible volunteers! This event is open to volunteers from all branches, as well as their guests. We hope that you can come to connect with friends from across the club, to learn more about your collective accomplishments, and to celebrate our culture of volunteerism.

The evening program includes the presentation of each Branch Service Award, as well as The Mountaineers Service Award, The Mountaineers Leader of the Year Award, and the Martinique Grigg Leadership in Youth Education Award.

Please RSVP by January 23, 2020 to reserve your seat - space is limited! Dinner is complimentary, and there is no cost to attend.

Keynote Presentation

We're excited to announce this year's Keynote Presenter, Mountaineers Books author David Guterson.

David Guterson is a novelist, short story writer, poet, essayist, and journalist. He is best known for his award-winning debut novel, Snow Falling on Cedars, which won both the PEN/Faulkner Award and the American Booksellers Association Book of the Year Award. It has sold more than four million copies and was adapted as a major motion picture. His book-length poem, Turn Around Time: A Walking Poem for the Pacific Northwest, was published by Mountaineers Books in 2019. David lives on Bainbridge Island near Seattle with his wife Robin. They have five children. Follow David on Instagram @davidguterson and on Facebook @davidgutersonauthor.

More about Turn Around Time:

Most outdoor enthusiasts understand the phrase “turn around time” as that point in an adventure when you must cease heading out in order to have enough time to safely return to camp or home—regardless of whether you have reached your destination. For award-winning novelist David Guterson, it is also a metaphor for where we find ourselves in the middle of our lives, and his new narrative poem explores this idea through a lyrical journey along a trail, much like those in Washington’s mountain ranges which he hiked while growing up.

With a fast-moving, propulsive quality, David’s writing offers lush language, vivid imagery, and pacing that resonates as a journey on foot. Outdoor lovers will relate to the physicality of hiking represented here, from endless trail switchbacks to foot and ankle pains as well as observant descriptions of the mountain landscape. David’s words are brought further to life by the delicate yet mythical illustrations by award-winning artist Justin Gibbens.