Celebrating Success by Giving Back
To commemorate their sixth anniversary as a grassroots nonprofit dedicated to getting families outdoors, Hike it Baby launched a month-long campaign to give back to our trails. The community responded by hosting 96 trail cleanup hikes across the US and Canada. Hikers removed a total of 940 gallons of trash.
Several partners supported Hike it Baby’s efforts, including Deuter, who provided 1,000 reusable Deuter “Junior Dirtbags” to collect trash.
“It was really amazing to see the Hike it Baby communities coming together to celebrate and clean up the trails,” said Jessica Carrillo Alatorre, Hike it Baby’s Executive Director. “And our co-branded kids dirtbag with Deuter and Leave No Trace™ were the perfect complements to the celebration. Our community couldn’t wait to get the reusable bags. Families loved using them to clean up. Sometimes we forget that even with babies and toddlers we can still get outside, give back and make friends. This campaign helped prove it’s possible. Even more importantly, we’re helping shape our children’s good habits to love and care for the Earth. Together, we’re raising a generation to love the outdoors.”
The Mission
Hike it Baby’s mission focuses on supporting families with children from birth to five years old, helping them to get outdoors and celebrate nature. During this campaign, babies as young as eight weeks old participated in cleaning up our trails.
“Children under five are learning the habits and behaviors that will last a lifetime,” Carrillo Alatorre said. “They love learning how to take care of their things and it’s important to teach them this planet is one of the things they need to help take care of if they want it to last. Once they know what to look for, it’s so fun to see little ones pointing out the trash, sharing Leave No Trace ethics with their friends and working hard to make good choices. Little steps of pointing out and picking up trash turn into bigger impacts like collectively removing 940 gallons of trash. Everyone can make an impact and it’s our job to teach our children how to make it positive.”
Additional partner support came from Leave No Trace through educational resources, Clifbar, who donated 50,000 kids’ Zbars and Extreme Terrain’s Clean Trail Initiative Program Grant, which covered all shipping costs for the campaign.
About Hike it Baby
Hike it Baby is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to getting families outdoors and on trails across the U.S. and internationally, supporting, educating and inspiring families through their more than 300 communities across North America. Since its grassroots inception in 2013 in Portland, Oregon, Hike it Baby is now a growing community of 270,000 families and 500 volunteer branch ambassadors hosting more than 1,600 hikes per month. More information, as well as daily hike schedules, can be found at HikeitBaby.com, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram.
Image credit: Deanna Curry
