[the galvanizer] Jim Kern
The Florida Trail (1,400 miles). The American Hiking Society (nearly 2,000 National Trails Day events). Big City Mountaineers (more than 600 youth introduced to the wilderness annually). You’d be rightfully proud to have started any of these, but Kern founded all three. This longtime friend of the magazine (BACKPACKER’s founding editor, William Kemsley, Jr., collaborated with Kern to get the AHS off the ground) has done more to help the hiking world than most of us could do in 10 lifetimes. And of course he’s not done. Kern, 76, is currently at work on Trail Reflections, a coffee-table book about his 50 years of hiking and the organizations he established along the way.
Thanks for your comment Dale. I always appreciate diversity in perspectives.
Yes, it matters to me what color you are because it is going to require everyone - all races and creeds, to get engaged with nature in order to be healthier, happier, and to sustain the spaces and places we all love so dearly.
My conversation is focused so that it can inspire others to participate as part of a larger conversation to engage everyone. So please look beyond the surface and know you are not (nor is anyone) excluded in this work and conversation to connect all people to nature in the most relevant way.
Rue Mapp
Founder, Outdoor Afro
Dale
Jun 30, 2012
I have read page 96 in your August 2012 over and over again. I never write into magazines but this got my attention. I wonder if any one has looked up the word heroes in a dictionary lately. Why should color /race have any thing to do with who is out doors hiking? A whole lot of my friends don't like hiking but I happen to enjoy it. Every one is different. As soon as our world quiets looking at peoples color and just gets out and enjoys what ever they enjoy doing, it will be a happier place. Rue Mapp, who cares what color your fellow hikers are, I sure don't. Get over it.
READERS COMMENTS
Thanks for your comment Dale. I always appreciate diversity in perspectives.
Yes, it matters to me what color you are because it is going to require everyone - all races and creeds, to get engaged with nature in order to be healthier, happier, and to sustain the spaces and places we all love so dearly.
My conversation is focused so that it can inspire others to participate as part of a larger conversation to engage everyone. So please look beyond the surface and know you are not (nor is anyone) excluded in this work and conversation to connect all people to nature in the most relevant way.
Rue Mapp
Founder, Outdoor Afro
I have read page 96 in your August 2012 over and over again. I never write into magazines but this got my attention. I wonder if any one has looked up the word heroes in a dictionary lately. Why should color /race have any thing to do with who is out doors hiking? A whole lot of my friends don't like hiking but I happen to enjoy it. Every one is different. As soon as our world quiets looking at peoples color and just gets out and enjoys what ever they enjoy doing, it will be a happier place. Rue Mapp, who cares what color your fellow hikers are, I sure don't. Get over it.
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