The Kokatat Gear is Here!
Kokatat sent us PFDs, hydration packs, paddle gloves, and thermal skull caps. You can check out their stuff at http://www.kokatat.com/
Kris and Emily Heeren trying out the new gear
Baltic Crossing
Expedition Institute 2012
Posts Tagged ‘ Baltic ’
On Fundraising:
Ben made a pizza all by himself!
For the planning of this program we’ve broken the work into three pieces: logistics (coordinating efforts with our Scandinavian contacts), marketing (focusing on our logo, blog, and other ways we can get our story out), and finance. Myself, I’m a proud member of team finance.
The financial goals of the project are twofold: first—and probably most obvious—we’ve been trying to raise money. We’ve been searching for grants (for Tucker to apply for) and coordinating everyone’s personal fundraising. The second focus is finding ways to lower our costs. To this end, we’re seeking out companies and organizations willing to help fund the trip with either a monetary donation or sponsorship of gear.
Personally, I’ve been focusing on tracking down companies that are willing to provide us out with gear. Whether it’s free or subsidized, every little bit goes a long way toward making this program financially possible.
It’s an incredibly frustrating (when unsuccessful) and exhilarating (when companies are psyched to help out) task. Needless to say, the success rate can sometimes be disheartening So far we’ve had the best luck in finding help on the little things. It’s important to note that there are a ton of little things, which when added together become quite a sum. Supplying twelve people with sun block for five weeks on the ocean, for example, is no small expense. For that reason, we sought out Badger Balm (http://www.badgerbalm.com/), who generously sent us a whole box of goodies from sun block to an awesome muscle rub to use after long days of paddling. These contributions make all of our effort worthwhile.
What makes the process fun is coming up with the right way to pitch the expedition to different companies. It may seem like a basic principle of sales, but we aren’t selling them a product, but an idea. Each company that supports us is looking for something specific from our partnership, and it’s my job to help figure out what that is and how we can get it to them.
We’re six weeks out and I couldn’t be more psyched. We’ve booked our flights, sampled our balms, and are looking forward to getting on the water. Until then, keep checking in for updates.
Sincerely,
Ben Swanson – Student, Team finance representative, Badger Balm enthusiast
An Introduction
Dear reader,
Eleven months, hundreds of phone calls, countless meetings, and several awkward photo shoots later, and we have a free blog. Ladies and gentlemen, we have officially arrived.
We are going to the Baltic Sea.
They say our grandparents were the Greatest Generation, and their parents before them are remembered as the Lost Generation. We’re known as the Nothing Generation, and we would like to change that. We live in a time of increased ease and stagnancy, but a mutual love of the outdoors, the medium for learning it provides, and a desire to challenge the status quo have driven us to draft a plan to kayak over 250 miles from Stockholm, Sweden to Helsinki, Finland. We have decided to confront our generation’s negative image and push ourselves to our mental and physical capacities for five weeks in the Baltic Sea.
The experience doesn’t start when we touch down in Europe, though. For the last year, five juniors from the Gettysburg Recreational Adventure Board (GRAB) have worked closely with their directors of the Office of Experiential Education, along with a faculty member, an alumnus, and three professional sea kayakers to bring this dream to fruition. Logistics, fundraising, marketing, harassing multinational companies over the phone for donations – we’ve done it all. This trip has been constructed from the ground up as an exercise in expedition planning, and by checking back over the next few weeks you’ll see just how much work has gone into planning this trip; but we’re not done yet.
We knew that the plan was ambitious at inception, but we’re so close I can almost taste the meatballs and fermented trout – please help us make this dream a reality. To learn more, view pictures, or make a contribution visit our website at:
http://www.gettysburg.edu/about/offices/college_life/grab/expeditioninstitute/
Thank you for reading,
The Baltic Crossing team
Baltic Crossing 