As I rode up the cable car at Squaw Valley on a hot August day last year, I was checking out many familiar sights – KT-22, The Fingers, Headwall and the wonders of Squaw lay beneath – but it wasn’t until I looked within the car that I saw the inspiration within these features. For surrounding me were 12 foster children with open eyes, drinking in the many sights they had never seen before. Huge smiles and bubbly excitement summarized the day’s adventures of horseback riding, ice-skating and swimming throughout Alpine Meadows and Squaw Valley.
TAO Education (The Teachers’ Association for Outdoor and Adventure Education) and Mountain Circle Family Services had worked together to create the expedition in Squaw Valley – with the success of the day, there was inspiration to create more like it. The children’s expressions of gratefulness, happiness, and passion motivated me as I worked to further integrate foster children in outdoor adventures. As time grew, so did the interest, ideas, and creativity to get these wonderful youth in the wilderness. With support from friends, family and our gracious community, the idea of a SOULSTICE Festival was born.
On Saturday, June 23, TAO Education will be hosting the SOULSTICE Festival at Truckee Regional Amphitheatre at 4 p.m. All proceeds and fundraising donations will directly benefit the SOULSTICE Festival and the foster children of Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Butte, Lassen, Washoe and Sierra Counties. The benefit concert will grant foster children of Mountain Circle an opportunity to sea kayak on Lake Tahoe, rock climb Donner Pass, raft the Sierra rivers, and backpack throughout Yosemite National Park.
Mountain Circle is a community-based non-profit Foster Care and Adoption placement organization, dedicated to making a positive difference in the lives of children and families. By offering a continuum of services that emphasize the inherent value and strengths of families, they seek to promote the physical, emotional and educational health of children, improving outcomes for future generations. Shauna Rossinton, Executive Director of Mountain Circle believes that ‘every child deserves to grow up in a permanent, nurturing home.’
Courtney Hollway, Social Worker and Adoption Coordinator for Mountain Circle said outdoor expeditions benefit the foster children by ‘challenging them both physically, emotionally, and spiritually…they will have an opportunity to see things they may not have ever seen both within themselves and in front of them.’
The SOULSTICE Festival has booked incredible local bands, promising to be an all-out boogie party with Blue Turtle Seduction, The Rusty Strings and Two Out Rally. The bands’ ‘High Altitude Bohemian Funk Grass’ (bluegrass, mountain-reggae, world music, and funk) will be sure to get you dancing, thinking, reminiscing, laughing and singing along all at the same glorious time. Tickets for the SOULSTICE Festival are $15 in advance at TAOEducation.org, New Moon Natural Foods and Alice’s Mountain Market and $20 day of show. Children 10 and under are free.
The benefit will also have community booths and raffles. Sponsors include Ben and Jerry’s, Clif Bar, Truckee BioFuels, Charitysmith Non-Profit, Papoose Infant Care and Preschool, Bikram Yoga, Clever Minds Educational Services, Wild Thyme BBQ, The Lions Club of Truckee, Tahoe Women’s Services, Biking for A Better World, Solar Wind Works and private donations.
Info, TAOEducation.org and MountainCircle.org.
~ Mark Keim Program Director, TAO Education and Lasting Adventures Summer Backpacking Program.
