It’s that time of the year again and we are calling on you, our community and support system, to help us emerge from the chrysalis we have been in for the last several years. The School has experienced an extended rite of passage, an evolutionary threshold, exacerbated by the pandemic. As a nonprofit organization, we are ready to emerge into a new phase of service.

The School of Lost Borders, first and foremost, is fiercely dedicated to nature based learning. We believe, as you do, in the capacity wild spaces have to heal, to grow, and to inspire humans. Our work ripples outward through the direct impact that each participant experiences and the gifts that they bring back to their communities, as well as by seeding the world with trained guides who spread this important work in a variety of ways.  We witness you, each other, and the Earth benefiting from this practice and are fed in body and spirit. If only this was enough to live on!  Instead, we grapple with how to fairly and adequately serve our communities without sacrificing the well being and continuance of the organization. It’s a familiar story. But it’s our story, and it ends with “we need your help.”

Although we have continued to serve you with delight and awe, and have made great strides toward improving our financial situation, we are still recovering from the pandemic and are looking to raise $50,000 before the end of the year.

We are pleased to share some milestones from this past year (2022):

• We ran 31 programs, serving 254 people.

• We onboarded 3 new next-generation guides.

• Successfully completed our second 18-month training program.

• Offered Queer and sponsored BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) programs.

• The Practice of Living and Dying programs once again sold out immediately with a waitlist 3 times larger than prior years.

• Development of new upcoming programs for next year — including 2 youth programs, 2 mens programs, and a Nature of Council program.

• There is a huge demand for our month long training, which seeds more guides into the world.

Just a few of the ways your donations will support our work:

• Paying our staff and guides a living wage.

• Paying for the insurance and maintenance essential to the safety of our participants.

• Maintaining our scholarship program for low-income participants.

• Assisting in our efforts to develop a path for Black, Indigenous, and people of color to train as guides.

• Programming for our LGBTQIA2S+ communities.