NOLS Successfully Completes Campaign

LANDER, WYO—The National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) is delighted and grateful to announce the successful completion of the $20-million Campaign NOLS: Endowing Our Core Values.

The success of the campaign is to the family of NOLS supporters: alumni, parents and friends. Two larger challenge gifts, totaling just under $4 million, helped spur the campaign to a successful completion on Dec. 31, 2013, raising 5.8 percent over the goal.

“The NOLS family rallied together in support of Campaign NOLS: Endowing Our Core Values, demonstrating our shared belief in our mission to be the leading source and teacher of wilderness skills and leadership that serve the people and the environment,” said NOLS Executive Director John Gans.

The majority of the campaign will go to the NOLS Endowment, which provides the nonprofit school with long-term financial support, ensuring NOLS will be a part of the community in the future. Part of NOLS’ role in its hometown and state of Lander, Wyo. is scholarships. Each year, NOLS grants $1.5 million in scholarships, a portion of which is reserved specifically for students from Wyoming and Lander.

“The simplicity of carrying everything you own in a pack, coupled with the knowledge of the instructors, my amazing fellow students, and the beauty and serenity of the Wind Rivers, made my experience a life-changing one,” wrote NOLS Wind River Mountaineering graduate Andrea Stooksbury of her NOLS experience in Wyoming.

About NOLS

Since legendary mountaineer Paul Petzoldt founded the school in 1965, more than 230,000 students have graduated from the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), the leader in wilderness education. Whether through field-based courses offered in some of the most awe-inspiring locations in the world or classroom-based courses, the school provides transformative educational experiences to students of all ages. Graduates emerge as active leaders with lifelong environmental ethics and outdoor skills. To discover the NOLS experience or to bring a course to your business or organization, call (800) 710-NOLS (6657) or visit www.nols.edu.