Craftsbury Outdoor Center is thrilled to announce our partnership with Footprints, a non-profit incubator for climate action. The first two fruits of this partnership will be a camp and trail race celebration this September in Craftsbury. 

Footprints' camps are the primary embodiment of their mission to generate community-level climate action. Campers are selected on the basis of grassroots initiatives they are passionate about bringing to life. Footprints matches campers with relevant project mentors drawn from land management, environmental science, community organizing, business - whatever skills will help further the camper's project goals. Mentors educate participants who apply those lessons to their tangible projects across the country. 

“Footprints does an incredible job of sparking community-driven climate action,” notes Craftsbury Running Director Susan Dunklee. “Their camp model aligns very closely with the Outdoor Center's mission, and I am thrilled to welcome them to Craftsbury this fall. I see a lot of potential to collaborate on new programming ideas going forward.”

Footprints Executive Director Dakota Jones sees common cause in the community and purpose-driven nature of the Center and Footprints. "The Craftsbury Outdoor Center is the perfect fit for Footprints because it is built on a foundation of community and purpose. They don't just train athletes; they help people reach their potential in all aspects of their lives. Well-rounded personal development like that helps create strong communities that then have the capacity to do more for the world around them. We can't wait to see how much we can accomplish together."

The Outdoor Center will be hosting the first Footprints camp in the east, September 24 - October 1, 2023. Camp will culminate in a 5 or 10 mile Trail Run fundraiser for Footprints open to the public to run on Craftsbury’s singletrack and ski trails. 

Footprints Trail Running Camp

September 24 -October 1

Footprints is a climate action incubator with a simple, yet effective premise: bring exceptional people together for a week in an immersive natural setting  to live and work together, build meaningful personal connections, and develop business plans to bring participants’ climate action projects to life or accelerate their strategies. Footprints believes that building leaders for climate action from a shared community of passionate people like trail runners multiplies the impact we can make together.

How it works:
Trail runners apply to Footprints by pitching a potential climate solution to a problem in their home community. Footprints selects a cohort of 18 campers to spend a week at Craftsbury enjoying the trails and roads, and workshopping their projects with knowledgeable mentors who are experts in the fields of environmental science, business, and advocacy. Each camper leaves camp with an actionable plan for their project. The camp culminates with a public race event, The Footprints Trail Run, where campers celebrate and share their climate action plans with the Vermont community. 

The application windows will be open from March 13 - May 5 through the Footprints website. Successful candidates will be notified by the end of May.

Footprints Trail Run

September 30

We want to get YOU involved with Footprints! Footprints and Craftsbury’s missions are much bigger than just one week of campers. We need collective action and momentum to implement community climate solutions, so we invite all trail runners to join us for the Footprints Trail Run.

We’ll start the day off with a trail race, winding through singletrack, ski trails and dirt roads on either a 5 or 10-mile course. But the race is just the starting point for a broader conversation. 

In addition to great food, music and tasty beverages, our post-race celebrations will culminate in a send-off for Footprints’ newest climate leaders. Each Footprints camper will give a brief presentation on the climate action project that they developed over the prior week at Footprints Running Camp. Proceeds from the race will go into a fund to help campers implement those projects in their home communities. 

We hope you’ll be part of the action both on the course and in the post-race conversations. We’ll share the topics of the Footprints camper projects prior to the event and we challenge you to find ways that you can plug in your knowledge, your networks, and your ideas to these projects at the post-race celebration. Together we’ll send the Footprints community home equipped to take meaningful climate action! 

More details and race registration can be found here.