Hello friends,

For the last twenty years, I have had the pleasure of introducing hundreds of students to the world of outdoor adventures through The Adventure Club. Headquartered at Columbus Signature Academy New Tech High School in Columbus, the mission of the CSAAC is to provide outdoor opportunities to all students, regardless of experience or background, at low or no cost.

We've taken dozens of backpacking, rock climbing, canoeing, cave exploring, skiing, ziplining, biking, fishing, and hiking trips. We have learned a great deal from one other and from the greatest teacher of all: Mother Nature.

The cover photo is from March 2020 in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park... we squeezed in this memorable trip just before The Pandemic took hold of the world. It's the last significant trip we've done. We are standing at the intersection of the Low Gap Trail and the Appalachian Trail, which forms the state line between North Carolina and Tennessee. Minutes after this picture was taken we met a through-hiker who didn't know anything about the impending pandemic.

The last two years have impacted us in predictable, but alas, still painful, ways. We have had to scale back the size of our outings so that we can socially distance on buses. We have had to invest in additional equipment because COVID protocols dictate that we can only sleep one per tent. Perhaps most notably, we have simply been buried in the business of coping with adapting to the new realities of how school is done and have not had the time or the energy to fundraise. We were also the victims of theft, having had two club tents stolen out of my truck last summer.

But NOW, we are now ready to refill the club coffers and get back to the outdoors!

Funds raised through this campaign will be used for two purposes: transportation costs and gear upgrade/ replacement. A typical overnight trip to Monroe County costs us around $100 for a group of seven students and two adults. A longer trip, such as the March 2020 trip to the Smokies, costs around $1600. Our goal of $2,000 for this campaign should ensure that we can continue weekend outings and start planning something bigger, either this coming summer or Fall Break.

Thank you for considering a donation to our club.

Yours in Adventure,

Andrew Larson and the CSAAC Crew