Capital Region Business Journal, Charitable Giving, Magazines, Skiing / 15.03.2011
The Sit-Ski – The Joy Trip Project
Winter in Wisconsin is a wonderful time for outdoor recreation. Despite the cold weather and waist deep snow thousands turn out each year to engage in sports that range from downhill and cross-country skiing, to snowboarding and cyclo-cross bike riding.
With so many snow sports to pick from winter is for everyone. And thanks to local attorney Donald Becker, even people with disabilities can experience cold weather fun. Having financed the creation and mass production of an adaptive snow vehicle called a sit-ski, Becker is making it possible for those unable to walk to glide over frozen terrain.
Collisions with automobiles make it pretty clear where
Protecting the environment for future generations is great idea. In fact it’s a notion so simple that you might wonder why it took a White House committee 10 months, 52 public listening sessions and a 116-page document to express what any lover of nature knows by heart. Unveiled in February by President Obama, America’s Great Outdoors report offers a comprehensive list of recommendations to preserve wilderness and recreation areas throughout the United States for decades if not centuries to come. It’s a thorough series of proposals that provide logical solutions that aim to engage more citizens in outdoor activities. But this plan, ironically devised by the most racially diverse administration in our nation’s history, seems to neglect an excellent opportunity to make the great outdoors more relevant to the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population: people of color.
There’s hardly a storage of news to be had in our worldwide 24/7 media cycle. What’s remarkable is the sheer volume of information out there that tends to clog the pipe and make it difficult to find those articles that truly help to shape our thoughts. For those of us engaged in an active sustainable lifestyle there are several stories worth following this week that can both inspire and encourage our personal efforts to make the world a better place.
Several documentaries in recent years have made American consumers rethink the many products they purchase and…well… consume. Outrage over the seemingly irreparable harm imposed upon the planet and our personal health is compelling many to make proactive choices to rid their lives of plastic single-use disposable containers. The film 