HELP GIVE 42 WONDERFUL CITY KIDS THE CAMPING TRIP OF A LIFETIME!

Hello! Thanks for taking the time to learn about our program and lend your support!

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 headed to the Great Lakes to explore the beautiful forests and wetlands of Michigan's lush Waterloo Recreation Area, the towering bluffs of Warren Dunes, and the dazzling shorelines of Lake Michigan. These awesome, deserving kids will scale magnificent dunes, swim and canoe in sparkling lakes and rivers, hike through ancient pine groves, power bikes up and down forest ridges, 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!

Overview

Davy Rothbart, Russell Stewart, Talisha White, Keisha Rice, Mike Kozura, Denice Sanford and Akil "Smurf" Sanford here! Each summer for the past 16 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!

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 through beautiful forests, spot abundant birds and wildlife, swim and canoe in pristine lakes and rivers, go mountain biking, tour the University of Michigan campus, enjoy a night at the Jackson County Fair, watch the Perseid meteor shower, make S’mores and tell ghost stories around a campfire, learn camping and wilderness skills, and basically just have fun!

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 kind of incredible spot with a whole new bunch of kids in the coming weeks.

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); paddled 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), swam to a mysterious island back at Lake Sherando (2024), and visited beloved Seneca Rocks and surrounding peaks (2025).

NOTE: All the pictures on this page were taken on last year's trip!

For our 17th year, we're bringing our crew of new and returning campers to Michigan for a week of hiking, biking, canoeing, exploring, and much more! We have special adventures planned including a visit to swim in the majestic cool waters of Lake Michigan, a canoe trip exploring hidden waterways in search of the elusive blue heron, mountain biking on serene, world-class trails, and rolling down endless sand dunes. We'll also keep our eyes open for Michigan's abundant wildlife, including deer, foxes, porcupines, and even bald eagles.

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.

This year's 17th 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.

We're excited this year to be bringing TEN kids with us for the first time who are actually the children of campers from our first couple of years. It feels special for these parents who had such formative experiences as teenagers to now be able to share in introducing their own kids to nature.

We Need Your Help To Make This Special Trip Happen!

We have 42 wonderful, deserving kids who are excited to go on these trips, but we would love to raise $29,250 in order to make the trips happen. Thanks to some fundraising events and some extremely generous donors, we were able to raise over $2,000 this spring and summer to give us a head start; now, we're in the home stretch for the final $29,250. 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.

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. We'll be sharing consistent updates and photos here on this page so you can witness the trip that you helped bring to life!

The Philosophy Behind Washington To Washington

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.

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.

Other Ways You Can Help

Besides contributing financially, there are other ways that you can help us make our 17th Annual Washington to Washington trip a reality:

- 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.

- 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.

- Donate gear! We are always in need of tents, sleeping bags, flashlights, and other camping and hiking supplies. This year we could also use extra hoodies, beach towels, and life jackets. To arrange a contribution of this kind, email us at WashingtonToWashington [at] Gmail [dot] com.

So, please help us distribute these URLs and get the word out!

W2W GoFundMe Fundraising Page short-link:

https://tinyurl.com/w2w-26

W2W Official Site: http://www.washingtontowashington.org/

Thank you so much for your support — it is enormously appreciated!

Much love & respect—

Davy, Talisha, Smurf, Russell, Denice, Brandon, Avery, Mike, Keisha, Takel, Akil Jr., Arkale, Paris, Dan, Monte, Barry, James, Joshua, Pedro, Alessandra, Jack, Jason, Nat, Hillary, Denise, 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.

Questions? Email us at WashingtonToWashington [at] Gmail [dot] com