Celebrating 10,000 Lives Impacted: Reflections from the Executive Director
This summer we celebrated the 10,000th student we have taken out on an inspirational journey into the wilderness. This could not have been possible without you – the community of supporters who come together year after year to give their time, talent, and treasure in service to our mission. As I reflect back on the incredible work of our staff, our volunteers, the trip leaders, youth agencies, and sponsors who band together every summer to make every trip special for our kids, I am deeply humbled and honored to have had just a small part in BCM’s story.
I have been privileged to be part of this organization through four field seasons and it has been a joy to meet the men and women who have played a role in building BCM over the years – from volunteer mentors, to long-standing board members, to selfless youth agency counselors, to some of our earliest employees who stepped up to see if the idea of BCM could be made real. Year by year, trip by trip, kid by kid, they have all done the hard work to reach this milestone.
In thinking about this blog and reflecting on the milestone, as well as, the hard work it has taken to achieve, I came across this quote from Marge Piercy, a best-selling and award winning novelist and poet.
“I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart, who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience, who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward, who do what has to be done, again and again.”
Often the work at BCM is hard, stressful, and goes unnoticed, but our reward is on the smiles of all the kids who come back euphoric having climbed their first mountain, slept out under the stars, discovered qualities in themselves that they did not know about, or opened up about something that was troubling them and found comfort in their friends and mentors. Next summer will be BCM’s 30th field season! I am ecstatic to have the opportunity to lead BCM across this next important milestone and set the organization up for even bigger accomplishments in the future.
Thank you for all you have done!
Bryan Martin
Executive Director