As a part of our Changemakers Outdoor Leadership Corps. the students receive a Wilderness First Aid Training.

Wilderness First Aid is an amazing skill to have to know how to care for other students, friends, family, and strangers while leading trips for Cottonwood Institute or recreating outdoors. For 2 days, the students learn everything from how to compassionately assess patients, get creative with splint materials, and make cervical spine collars out of puffy jackets. They spend mornings covering the ins and outs of patient care, and afternoons covering in fake bruises practicing their first aid skills in the field.

Does this sound like an amazing opportunity? Help fund the Changemakers WFA experience by donating $5,000 to cover the cost of the certification and training.

$2,500 can help fund students from Casa de la Esperanza attend our Familias Unidas en la Naturaleza (FUN) program this summer.

FUN is a new program to inspire youth and their families with the tools and resources to connect with nature through outdoor recreation. Starting with a backyard camp out at the Casa community center in Longmont, followed by day programming to learn essential camping skills, and culminating with a two youth-led local camping trips for students and their families, FUN will include a series of scaffolded outdoor experiences to promote positive connection through community and skill-building.

$1000 can support transportation costs for our field day and overnight trips for all of the schools we work with.

Cottonwood covers the cost of transportation for students/schools on our trips. With groups with around 25 students and several adults, these trips take several vehicles. The cost of rental vehicles, maintenance, and gas continues to rise. Support our vehicle costs by donating today!

As a part of CAP class, we strive for students to feel empowered to create change in their local communities. Each class implements a student-directed Action Project to positively address their issue.

CAP students have tackled wildfire mitigation projects, organized bike to school days, completed organic gardening and composting projects, created projects to help save native bees and pollinators, and more!

These projects often take added time and resources for our students to complete. Donate today to ensure that all of our classes have the resources they need.

Everyone knows one of the most essential parts of a camping trip (especially your first camping trip!) is having an ooey gooey delicious s'more.

Take that graham cracker, Hershey's chocolate, and 2 golden marshmallows and multiply that by 25 kiddos per class for 4 schools. That's a lot of s'mores! Help us create the s'mores of our students dreams and donate today!

$100 can help pay for groceries for the overnight camping trip for one of our classes.

For the majority of our trips, our students design the menu and choose the food they want to eat on our trips. We provide breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks for students on our trips free of cost. Help provide fueling and nutritious food on these trips for our students!

$50 can support new gear updates for our gear room and materials we provide for students.

On our programs, students use all materials, gear, clothing, etc. free of cost. This includes water testing kit materials, snowshoes, puffy jackets for warmth, tents and sleeping pads and everything in between. Support our gear repair and replenishment fund by donating today!