Outdoor Nation, a national initiative connecting college students and their communities to the outdoors, announced that Chaco has signed on as a sponsor of the 2015 Outdoor Nation Campus Challenge. The Challenge, which kicks off in September, is a nationwide competition in which colleges and universities across the country try to get the most people recreating outdoors. The six-week, Mother-Nature-meets-March-Madness-style competition is also supported by Adidas, Osprey, and CamelBak, along with presenting sponsors, The North Face and REI.
Chaco joins the effort to help inspire future generations of outdoor enthusiasts, investing in the health of our industry. “Chaco is proud to be involved in the Outdoor Nation Campus Challenge,” said Colin Butts, marketing director for Chaco. “We’re excited to connect directly with the students of colleges across the country as they discover their preferred ways to get active outside.”
“We are thankful to Chaco for its leadership, commitment and generous support. With this sponsorship, the Outdoor Nation Campus Challenge will activate more young people and their communities, ultimately getting more Americans into the great outdoors,” said Chris Fanning, executive director of the Outdoor Foundation, the organization that founded the Outdoor Nation initiative.
The 2015 Campus Challenge is expected to activate 60,000 young people in outdoor recreation, engaging 59 colleges. Schools with the most outdoor activities logged by the most people in their campus network (students, faculty, alumni and local community) will advance in the competition as well as receive grants for continued outdoor activation. The top school with the most participants and outdoor activities will be named the National Outdoor Champion; the overall top individual will be crowned Outsider of the Year.
The Outdoor Nation Campus Challenge Challenge started in 2014 to help combat the inactivity crisis prevalent among youth and young adults in America. The statistics are staggering. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average young person spends eight hours in front of a screen and only eight minutes outside and active.
Last year, in its pilot program, the Campus Challenge engaged ten colleges and universities. In just eight weeks, 8,390 participants logged almost 44,000 outdoor activities, with many schools reporting a major surge in campus-wide interest in outdoor recreation. Many outdoor programs and outing club members served as organizers for the Challenge – planning school-wide activities, promoting individual participation and introducing new outdoor activities to spark interest.
The winner of the 2014 competition was the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University (CSB/SJU) in Collegeville, Minnesota. The university received a gear bank, sponsored by The North Face, that includes technical packs, tents, sleeping bags and more. The school also held a campus-wide celebration to honor their accomplishment.
