It seems hard to believe that eight years ago Treks was started with our inaugural Flat Tops Trek up to Meeker with a group of youth from Northwest Denver. Those youth are grown now and some have families of their own! What's even more remarkable is that they are still in touch with Dominic, our ED, who remains up-to-date on the happenings in their lives. It is the relationship building and genuine investment in our participants healing journeys that has kept Treks going strong, 8 years later.
The Colorado Treks team took off last week for the 8th annual Flat Tops Wilderness Trek! For summer 2024 we took two groups of 6 youth on back to back trips, where they got to experience the beauty of the most serene place in Colorado, on horseback and camping in the wilderness. These youth will get to bring this experience of the Medicine of the Mountains back to their families and community, and begin to be the change to inspire healing in others, as well.
What is the medicine of the mountains? Dominic likes to describe it as the life changing, life affirming power of returning to Mother Earth. It's the inexplicable peace you feel sitting in your thoughts by the lake waiting for your bobber to move. It's the energy that gets passed into you as the leaves rustle in the breeze and you begin moving with nature. Our participant Rocco (15 years) put it best: "The Medicine of the Mountains is like when you are in the mountains and can enjoy nature and feel more at peace with everything"
Eight years into our own journey, we are humbled and excited to do the work. We have served nearly 1000 school age youth directly - and their families and communities, by passing the medicine through them. We have grown from that first trek to the Flat Tops in 2016, to year round programming that includes horseback riding, skiing, tubing, hiking, camping, fishing, and rock climbing. Our reach is now expanding to serve whole families, so the healing can be intergenerational. We have grown our staff from Dominic Lucero, who did this work tirelessly and relentlessly on his own for the first 7 years, to now 3 additional full-time staff who are adding to our capacity and success.
We invite you, community and supporters, to join us in this celebration of 8 years! You are cordially invited to come to our first ever Gala!! The Medicine of the Mountains Gala will be an opportunity for all of us to crowdsource and raise much needed funds to continue helping provide access to the Medicine of the Mountains, breaking barriers to the healing that can come from those experiences. We have several levels of sponsorship - check out our options and contact us when you know how you want to help!
Thank you, community, for making Colorado Treks what it is today. We know we cannot do this work without you, and we're so grateful for the support.
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