<div><strong>HELP GIVE 75 AWESOME CITY KIDS THE CAMPING TRIP OF A LIFETIME!</strong>
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<div>Hello! Thanks for taking the time to learn about our program and lend your support!
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<div>Washington To Washington brings city kids from D.C., Detroit, and New Orleans on a week-long adventure exploring the Great Outdoors. This year we're expanding and building TWO separate trips, bringing 50 kids from New Orleans to Smoky Mountains National Park and 25 kids from D.C. and Detroit to Seneca Rocks in West Virginia's Allegheny Mountains. These awesome, deserving kids will hike magnificent peaks, swim and canoe in sparkling lakes and rivers, ride horses up a stunning mountain ridge near Shenandoah National Park, explore caves, go rock-climbing, and much more. Since we're all volunteers, 100% of your donation helps to get kids out into nature for a trip they'll always remember. We've got a short time to raise the money – thanks so much for your generosity and for your help spreading the word!
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<div><strong>Overview</strong>
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<div>Davy Rothbart, Russell Stewart, Talisha White, Keisha Rice, Denice Sanford and Akil "Smurf" Sanford here! Each summer for the past 15 years – with the generous help of friends like you – we put together a camping trip called Washington to Washington, where we bring kids who have grown up in the city to experience the Great Outdoors. Thank you so much for checking out the pictures and short video below, and contributing what you can to help this year's trip come to life!
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<div>Each year, with a group of amazing kids, we explore some of the country's most incredible wilderness areas. Along the way, these kids will hike up a mountain, walk through beautiful forests, swim, canoe, and fish in pristine lakes and rivers, eat new foods, ride horses, go rock climbing, watch shooting stars, make S’mores and tell ghost stories around a campfire, learn camping and wilderness skills, and basically just have fun!
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<div>This short 30-second video gives you a taste for the magic these kids experience on our trips - please check it out! With your help, we'll be back in this same incredible spot with a whole new bunch of kids in the coming weeks.
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<div>What have we done on previous W2W trips? We've hiked some of the tallest mountains in the Presidential Range in New Hampshire (2010); dropped by Luray Caverns and found secret swimming holes deep into the Shenandoah Valley (2011); found crawfish in the creek, tried some yoga, and hiked up Seneca Rocks in West Virginia (2012); drifted down a lazy river and explored Tracy Ridge in Allegheny National Forest (2013); completed a scavenger hunt, hit the beach, and hiked Bolar Mountain in George Washington National Forest (2014); went to a children's museum, played a pick-up game in Michigan Stadium, canoed tranquil lakes, and played in the sand around Warren Dunes in Michigan (2015); zip-lined, pet wild ponies, and trekked Mount Rogers in Virginia (2016); fished a nearby lake, rode on horseback, and hiked around Lake Sherando, Virginia (2017); hit the state fair, fished a little more, competed in camp Olympics, and hiked Twin Overlook in Virginia (2018), leapt down the magnificent Sleeping Bear Dunes in Northern Michigan (2019), crafted local adventures and helped with pandemic relief (2020; 2021), hiked to the majestic Blackwater Falls (2022), rock-climbed and explored wild caves in the Allegheny Mountains (2023) and swam to a mysterious island back at Lake Sherando (2024).
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<div>For our 16th year, we're expanding to TWO trips in one summer. We've got 50 grade-school kids from New Orleans heading to Smoky Mountains National Park and 25 kids from D.C. and Detroit traveling to Seneca Rocks in West Virginia's Allegheny Mountains for a week of camping, hiking, and much more! This year we have special adventures planned including a thrilling canoe trip and visits with local artists and ecologists. We'll keep our eyes open for the areas abundant wildlife, including deer, foxes, porcupines, and even bald eagles.
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<div>The trip was inspired by our friendship with D.C. native Emmanuel Durant, Jr. After his tragic death on New Year's Eve, 2009, we teamed up with Emmanuel's family to create these annual trips as a way to introduce city kids to the magic of nature, broaden perspectives, and pay tribute to Emmanuel.
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<div>This year's 16th Annual Trip is also dedicated to Jamail "Woo" Belton, a camper from our very first trip in 2010 who later became a trip leader, as well as Rayshaud Small, the son of longtime trip leader Keisha Rice, and trip leaders Angel Scroggins and Duane Little and camper Nazir Ulysse, who all passed away during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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<div><strong>We Need Your Help To Make This Special Trip Happen!</strong>
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<div>We have 75 wonderful, deserving kids who are excited to go on these trips, but we would love to raise $28,000 in order to make the trips happen. Thanks to some extremely generous donors, we were able to raise almost $4,000 this spring and summer to give us a head start; now, we're in the home stretch for the final $28,000. Our trips are run entirely by volunteers, so please know that 100% of your donation goes toward covering the hard costs of making the trip happen — food, gas, transportation, camping gear, special activities, etc.
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<div>Honestly, the biggest reward you'll receive from contributing is the knowledge that you've helped some awesome kids get out into nature — many for the first time in their lives — and have some new, deeply meaningful experiences. That said, we'll also be sending out photos of the trip, handmade Thank You cards, and all kinds of other special prizes to those who offer support. Be sure to share your mailing address with us to receive a Thank You package once we return from our trip! We'll also share lots of updates and photos here on this page.
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<div><strong>The Philosophy Behind Washington To Washington</strong>
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<div>Our trips have no specific agenda — we seek only to introduce kids who have rarely left D.C., Detroit and New Orleans (or even their own neighborhoods) to the joys of nature and wilderness hiking and give them a chance to experience something brand-new and have an exciting adventure. On past Washington to Washington hikes, we trip leaders have seen that look of accomplishment and inspiration that fills the kids' faces when we've reached the top of a mountain. It's amazing! We always find ways to connect the triumphs the kids experience in their wilderness adventures with the goals they aim to achieve in their own lives. It's impossible to overstate just how meaningful, impactful, transformative, joyful, and special our Washington to Washington trips seem to be to these kids.
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<div>We're proud that many of our campers have not only become the first in their families to graduate high school but also have gone on to attend (and graduate) college at University of Wisconsin, University of Maryland, and HBCUs Virginia State and Grambling State, among others.
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<div><strong>Other Ways You Can Help</strong>
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<div>Besides contributing financially, there are other ways that you can help us make our 16th Annual Washington to Washington trip a reality:
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<div>- Email links to this GoFundMe fundraising page and our Washington To Washington website to your family and friends. Direct appeals to people who you think will appreciate the value of these trips is the #1 way we're able to raise the funds we need to make this all possible. The URLs are below.
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<div>- Help us spread the word! Post links to this fundraising page and our Washington to Washington site on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. This makes an absolutely HUGE difference! The more people who learn about the trip, the better chance we have of raising the funds we need.
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<div>- Donate gear! We are always in need of tents, sleeping bags, flashlights, and other camping and hiking supplies. To arrange a contribution of this kind, email us at WashingtonToWashington [at] Gmail [dot] com.
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<div>So, please help us distribute these URLs and get the word out!
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<div>W2W GoFundMe Fundraising Page short-link:
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<div><a href="https://tinyurl.com/w2w25" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><a href="https://tinyurl.com/w2w-25" target="_blank" class="" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://tinyurl.com/w2w-25</a></a>
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<div>W2W Official Site: <a href="https://www.washingtontowashington.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><a href="http://www.washingtontowashington.org/" target="_blank" class="" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">http://www.washingtontowashington.org/</a></a>
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<div>Thank you so much for your support — it is hugely appreciated!
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<div>Much love &amp; respect,
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<div>Davy, Talisha, Smurf, Russell, Denise, Brandon, Takel, Akil Jr., Arkale, Avery, Mike, Monte, Barry, James, Joshua, Pedro, Alessandra, Jack, Jason, Nat, Hillary, Sam, Kyland, Tim, Crystal, Zach, Callie, Maggie, Max, Emily, Hannah, Ellyn, Danny, Doug, Gwen, Biju, Sierra, Alex, Mark, Katie, and the entire Washington to Washington crew.
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<div>Questions? Email us at WashingtonToWashington [at] Gmail [dot] com
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16th Annual Washington To Washington Camping Trip!

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