SOS Outreach Receives National Outdoor Award

Press Release

• March 02 2009
• 131 views
• add a comment

Bruce Ward, President of Choose Outdoors, presents the first annual Royal Robbins Award to SOS Outreach.  Jon Garrou, youth programs director, and Dan Ben-Horin, programs coordinator for Eagle County accepted the award for SOS.

March 2, 2009 (Vail, CO) –  Choose Outdoors, a coalition of organizations and individuals dedicated to outdoor recreation, awarded SOS Outreach with its first annual Royal Robbins Award.

Royal Robbins, Vice President of Choose Outdoors, is one of the most influential climbers in American history, who made several first free ascents on mountains in the U.S., as well as several first kayaking descents in California and Chile.

The Royal Robbins award was given “In recognition of the efforts to connect Americans to the land through outdoor recreation and for instilling the appreciation of our natural environment so future generations will have the opportunity to love and enjoy it as we do.”

Bruce Ward, who testified last month on outdoor recreation before the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is president of Choose Outdoors.  He said SOS Outreach was selected for both its qualitative and quantitative impact on youth.

“Out of all the national organizations we looked at, we wanted to recognize SOS for what they’ve done to get youth involved in the outdoors while teaching valuable leadership and character development skills,” he said. “We wanted other organizations to be aware of the SOS programs and curriculum in the hope it will serve as a model for others to follow and hopefully replicate.”

Founder and executive director of SOS Outreach, Arn Menconi, took the award in stride.

“SOS is humbled to receive this award, but even more humbled to teach kids community service and simple core values that will help protect the environment while giving back to their communities and society,” he said.

SOS Outreach was founded in Vail, Colorado, in 1993, and today reaches 5,000 youth in eight states through winter and summer sports programs.

Other organizations that were honored included the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA), National Get Outdoors Day, Thorne Ecological, Building On Life’s Disappointments (BOLD), Leave No Trace and the USDA Forest Service.