Adventure Crew

School-Based Outdoor Adventure ProgramDuring this fiscal year, Adventure Crew partnered with 21 Cincinnati Public Schools and 6 public schools in Northern Kentucky to engage over 700 unique students in grades 7-12, providing outdoor adventures for city teens at no cost. Our adventures now include kayaking and canoeing, hiking, ropes courses, skiing and snowboarding, ice and roller skating, rock climbing, camping, and cycling on natural and paved trails. Environmental education and stewardship is woven into our programs, where students learn about the ecology of land and water habitats, conservation, and a variety of specialized topics such as ornithology, plant and tree identification and environmental justice. Our gateway program is the "Explorer" level, where each Saturday, 50 - 150 youth participate in introductory-level adventures. From this program level, students can chart their own course through the "Crew Pathways" progressive program framework, rising to the "Discoverer," "Pathfinder, and "Trailblazer" levels that provide consistent opportunities for teens to work in small groups with expert teachers to advance their adventure sport skills, gain safety skills such as swimming, First Aid and CPR, immerse themselves in experiential environmental programs and prepare for youth employment and future careers in the environmental and outdoor recreation sectors. Students at all levels have access to overnight advanced destination camping and adventure experiences at local campsites, weekend trips to the Red River Gorge, and a week-long remote wilderness camping and canoeing trip in Ontario, Canada.

Fundraising In this year, Adventure Crew hosted diverse in-person fundraising events, such as an outdoor gear swap in partnership with Madtree Brewing and online fundraising campaigns, raffles, and auctions.

Community Based Adventure Programs: In this fiscal year, Adventure Crew planned the 21st year of the Ohio River Paddlefest held the first Saturday in August. Paddlefest is the nation's largest paddling event, with approximately 2,000 kayakers, canoers and stand-up paddleboarders registering to participate. Crew students also participate in Paddlefest as volunteers or as paddlers. The evening before Paddlefest, Adventure Crew hosts the Outdoors for All Expo, with 50+ vendors spanning the outdoor recreation, retail, nonprofit and government sectors, along with live music, food and drinks. Unfortunately, severe thunderstorms necessitated the cancellation of Paddlefest 2022, but it still proved to be the largest net revenue event to date, with the majority of funds coming from corporate sponsorship, paddler registration, and sales of merchandise, beer and raffle tickets sold at the Expo. In late August of each year, Adventure Crew hosts the Bill Keating, Jr. Great Ohio River Swim, where 200 open-water swimmers cross the Ohio River and back, and have the option to enter in the "Double Dip," swim, an additional 2.5 mile swim along the Ohio bank of the river before entering the course to swim across the river and back. This event raises funds to support our swimming program and other outdoor adventures. As a founding partner of The Ohio River Way (ORW), Adventure Crew continues to participate in this tri-state river community partnership supported by the National Park Service Rivers, Trails and Conservation Program and OKI, among numerous other entities.