ShareTrails | Help us Fight for Your Memories

We ran the numbers yesterday, and it looks like we’re still about $7,000 short of hitting our end of year fundraising goal. You might have seen our earlier post where we set the goal to match the goal of one of the more aggressive anti-access groups. We knew that this was an aggressive goal, but we’re still convinced that the community that supports recreation access to public land is massive. If we can get everyone engaged and making small investments into the work it takes to protect our access, we think we can match the financial resources of the anti-access groups. These last few days have proven that we’re right.

One of the biggest contributions we received during our end-of-year fundraiser was a bequest from the Buchanan Living Trust of Jim and Vernice Buchanan for $25,000, and we want to double the impact of this generous gift with $25,000 of additional donations as we head into the new year.

We love this picture that was sent along with the notification of the bequest.

This picture of Jim and Vernice Buchanan reminds us of a Chevrolet Christmas ad that was going viral in the week before Christmas. If you haven’t seen it yet, it is worth the four minutes of your time:

When we get into the middle of a fight for access, it often feels like we’re fighting about trails, or machines, or dirt, or decibel levels, or trees, or any number of issues that get brought into the fight. While those are the things we fight about, it’s important to always remember what we are fighting for.

Both the memory of the Buchanans and the Chevy ad remind us that machines are just machines – something that can break down over time in a garage. It is the memories that matter and endure to become a legacy. When we fight for you to have recreation access to open roads, the snow-covered mountain peaks, the scenic overlooks, the canyons, the waterways, and the lone fire-pit in the middle of nowhere, we know we are fighting for what will be some of your most memorable experiences. These are the experiences where you fell in love, found adventure, found solace from life’s challenges, forged relationships that span generations, then grieved for those you’ve lost. In short, we are fighting for the experiences that will be a meaningful part of your own personal legacy.

For this we know that these fights matter just as deeply to us as they do to all of you. To honor the memory of Jim and Vernice Buchanan, we are using the $25,000 they bequested to BRC to multiply the impact of all donations made before the end of the year. We need $7,000 to hit our goal. We think it’s possible to match the bequest made by the Buchanans. We hope you will contribute to help us fight for the experiences that will become part of your legacy. We are so grateful for everyone who has already donated. If you have already donated, you can help by enlisting others to join us in our mission to protect some of their most cherished experiences.

Happy New Year from the BRC team!