First off, I want to offer a big thank you to everyone who came out to this year’s Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour at the historic Fox Theatre. I hope you all enjoyed the evening and left feeling inspired to get out there and enjoy your own adventure.
Sold out crowd of 1150 at the beautiful Fox Theatre
The evening of films was filled with some incredible characters, Ueli Steck is just an incredible climber and his speed ascent of the Eiger made for possibly the most amazing moment of the night. And we can probably all agree that we now know more about paragliding than we ever thought we would – but what an incredible ordeal!
As the result of a sold-out crowd we were able to donate $5,500 to local non-profit groups as part of a grant program. We here at Summit Hut are incredibly grateful for all the amazing work our five finalists do in our community, and incredibly thankful for your support of this year’s grant. Each and every one of the five finalists, and the other 15 applicants, do wonderful things for the Tucson area. Everything from trail maintenance to getting our area’s youth outside. I’d like to take this opportunity to highlight, in a little more detail, our three runners-up and our two winners.
Our finalists on stage with Summit Hut owner Dana Davis.
Each of our three runners-up were awarded $250 in partnership with Patagonia as well as a $250 Summit Hut gift card.
Inner City Outings: The folks at ICO do an amazing job getting kids outside, most of whom would otherwise have no chance to do so. As a subsidiary of the Sierra Club, they partner with local schools and youth agencies to lead hiking, camping, kayaking, caving, mountain biking and many other adventures.
Friends of Kartchner Caverns State Park: Kartchner Caverns State Park is definitely a gem of our region. Friends of Kartchner is dedicated to advocating preservation of the caverns through research, education and public awareness. They are also responsible for docent training and scientific research at the caverns.
Sonoran Desert Weedwackers: The Weedwackers started in 2000 as a small group committed to remove non-native grasses in Tucson Mountain Park. Now, they are the hosts of the incredibly well known Beat Back Bufflegrass Day and have been incredibly productive in removing tons of invasive grasses.
The two winners of this year’s grant were each awarded checks for $2,000.
Our winners, Southern Arizona Rescue Association and Tucson Wildlife Center.
Southern Arizona Rescue Association: SARA is an incredible group of men and women who all volunteer their time to provide a vital service to our outdoor community. Members go through extensive training to be able to perform rescues under just about any conditions Southern Arizona could throw at them. This team of dedicated volunteers responds to over 100 search and rescue missions each year which results in over 4,400 hours of their time at absolutely no expense to taxpayers. Just about every one of us who has been enjoying the outdoors around Tucson for any amount of time has had some sort of interaction with this team. I know I’ve run into members of the SARA team out on the trail and here in the store and every single one of them is excited about the opportunity to do what they do, and on top of that, they are all genuinely nice people. They are all great people and obviously dedicated to providing a great service to those in need. They also have some wonderful outreach programs including the nationally acclaimed Hug-A-Tree system for educating children about outdoor safety. If you are interested in learning more about SARA, they host a monthly meeting at 7:30 pm the first Friday of each month at their SARA House near Sabino Canyon.
Tucson Wildlife Center: The team over at Tucson Wildlife Center was established in 1998 and is dedicated to rescue, rehabilitation and release of injured and orphaned wild animals. Specializing in birds of prey and javelina, this team of specially trained and passionate people is able to handle large and potentially dangerous animals. Since the first year, the center has rehabilitated between 250 and 300 animals per year. TWC also has a 24/7 emergency help line and a 24-hour emergency room. All services are provided free to the public. They also conduct wonderful educational programs out in the community which include live animals and provide wonderful information to children and adults alike. In working with Lisa and her team for a couple events, it has become incredibly evident that they are as dedicated as it comes. They are committed to the care, rescue and rehabilitation of the majestic wildlife of the Tucson area and love to share their passion with the community. And as an aside, they also have some of the cutest animal pictures in the world!