Support Scholarships at Wilderness Awareness School

NOTE: Thank you to everyone who helped donate a total of $22,008! With the match your generosity will fund a total of $44,016 in scholarships!

Our gratitude on behalf of kids of all ages... And while the matching period is over, your donation is still gratefully accepted towards funding scholarships and programs at Wilderness Awareness School.

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Spring is bursting with excitement in the natural world — a time for growth, renewed energy and inspiration. It is also the time that we must determine scholarship awards for the upcoming school year.

Last year we gave almost $75,000 in scholarships to over 100 youth and adults.

In these difficult economic times, our scholarship requests are increasing. We need your generous support to meet the growing demand and to help bring our co-founder Ingwe’s dream to life.

You see, Ingwe had a dream that all youth and all people would “find their song” and discover their unique gifts through developing a strong connection to the natural world (more about this at the end of my letter).

Ingwe felt this was everyone’s birthright and this is why our scholarship fund is named after him.

Ingwe would be pleased to hear what current scholarship students and families are saying about their experience at Wilderness Awareness School:

“I have gained a strong sense of my own unique gifts and the opportunity to put them into service in the context of community.”
—Chantel Thurman, Anake Outdoor School student

“He is thriving, and is becoming more and more confident and skillful in his physical body as well as in his mental and emotional connections with others.”
— Nancy Krivanka, mother of Kailas Brooke Krivanka, age 9

“I now feel empowered to live as a productive
and benevolent member of this planet.”
—John Sanderson, Anake Outdoor School student

What has impacted him most? — “Having instructors who truly value him for who he is, and help him to recognize and develop his own passions.”
—Tracey Bobsin, mother of Levi Bobsin, age 18

Will you help assure that every student who needs a scholarship to attend Wilderness Awareness School will have these incredible opportunities?

Please give generously to the Ingwe Memorial Scholarship Fund.

Sincerely,

Warren Moon
Executive Director

P.S. Please send in your donation to the Ingwe Memorial Scholarship Fund by June 1st, the deadline for us to notify next year’s scholarship recipients.

"I am so thankful to those who contributed to the Ingwe Memorial Scholarship Fund, enabling me to afford this program, and share these teachings with my students.

Those unseen helpers have dropped a beautiful stone in a great lake, and the ripple effects of their generosity will be felt by generations. And that is no small thing.”
— Stacey Hinden, Anake Leadership Program student

Finding their Song:
At Wilderness Awareness School our school-year programs are coming to a close, and this is often when students realize the depth of the impact of our programs on their lives. I have a premise for how this impact happens.

In Spring, when a Song Sparrow wakes up in the morning, he does not look around and think ‘It’s wet and rainy, I am brown and ugly, and I live in a shrub; and look at that Robin, with its shiny red breast, beautiful voice and perch on the tallest tree. I am not going to sing today. No one is going to listen anyway.’ No, he wakes up, shakes off the morning dew and without hesitation, belts out his song.

There is a saying that the forest would be a very quiet place if only the birds with the most beautiful voices sang.

Sadly, our cities, our suburbs, and our streets are often very quiet places. Many people have forgotten their “song”; they have forgotten the beauty they were meant to bring to the world.

I believe that if we spend enough time in nature, engaged in our senses, hearing and seeing the uninhibited expression of nature, we start to hear the calling of our soul — a call for us to be our genuine selves and lead lives that sing with vitality and passion. And, if we have the support of our mentors and peers, we can find the courage to answer that call.

My premise is supported by the following reflection by Shondell Kelley, a current Anake Outdoor School student:

“My experience at Wilderness Awareness School has provided me the structure, training and support to finally be able to answer the calling of my soul.”

Now I have to ask: What if Shondell had never been able to come to the Anake Outdoor School?

Luckily, we will never have to find out the answer to that question since Shondell was granted a scholarship.

Will you help make sure every student will have the opportunity to find their song?

Please give generously to the Ingwe Memorial Scholarship Fund.

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Wilderness Awareness School is a division of the Awareness Society, a not-for-profit organization, recognized as Federal Tax Exempt Organization under IRS code section 501(c)(3).