Rebooting Ski Club Uganda - NL #1
September 29, 2024
Hello, hello everyone!
By popular demand... it's here. Ski Club Uganda's first newsletter!
Welcome :)
So who's all here? We have pro skiers, climate scientists, non-profit directors, American and Ugandan students, friends, family, and even a US government official! Wow. It's everybody who we've spoken with about this project so far.
How about we get on the same page?
What's Ski Club Uganda all about? It was founded by Andrew Stuart in 1955, who said everybody who skis Mt. Rwenzori can join! So our little group (Pauli, Lummi, Lucas, and myself) are trying to enter.
We think it's an amazing story, so we're trying to collect all the stories from people who have already gone and put them on our website. Why? Because it's cool, and the world might forget it ever happened when the glacier is gone completely.
We also believe in leaving the world better than we found it, which sparked the outreach to climate scientists like Dr. Jim Russell, Dr. Sarah Ivory, Dr. Bob Nakileza, and Dr. Richard Taylor. All to answer the question: how best can we help the people living around the Rwenzoris?
They answered unanimously: by planting trees. There's various reasons: reducing mudslides, lowering local temperatures, supporting biodiversity, creating resources, and more. So we're partnering with the Uganda Conservation Foundation (UCF) to replicate a successful Tree Nursery Project they implemented in Murchison Falls, a different region in Uganda. The idea is to plant trees on school grounds where they'll have the biggest community impact, are easiest to sustain, and no one person can decide to remove them.
After conversations with Mike Keigwin, the Director of UCF, we'll need to raise $50,000 to buy the seeds (1 million), equipment, and train locals to plant and maintain them. To fundraise and legally transfer the money to UCF, we'll need to create a legal non-profit entity (done!) and apply for federal tax-exemption status, which takes 2-4 months. I've started that process.
But we don't just want to create a project and leave. We want this Tree Nursery project to sustain itself.
What we've discovered is, by planting these trees, we're creating opportunities to do hands-on conservation work and research into biodiversity & carbon sequestration. We think it would make a great student project! They would go help plant these trees, teach the local schoolchildren about it, do environmental research, and take the fantastic opportunity to do eco-tourism in Uganda, like safaris or hiking & skiing Mt. Rwenzori themselves.
Turns out, UCF has hosted students before for similar projects, and Dr. Bob Nakileza from Makerere University in Kampala is also interested in sending Ugandan students to help as well.
Our hope is, connecting Ugandan and American students to work side-by-side on a REAL conservation project might just create a strong enough bond that they'll repeat the experience.
So now, what is Ski Club Uganda all about?
Completing a collection of the Rwenzoris' skiers and their stories :)
Creating a non-profit to raise $50,000 for trees in schools around the Rwenzoris
Creating partnerships between Ugandan and American students to do hands-on conservation work and research.
And how are we going to get there?
We see this working out in three phases:
Building Infrastructure
Getting 501c3 status, completing the website and integrating merchandise, growing online following, growing the team, and setting up partnerships. That means talking with students & professors, finding other Ski Club Uganda members, and reaching out to non-profits and ski companies who may want to sponsor us.
Fundraising:
Use the momentum built by all of our conversations & online following to kick off a fantastic fundraise! We will sell merch, host fundraisers, apply for grants, seek corporate sponsors, get this story in magazines like National Geographic/Afar/Outside/etc., and reach out to everyone we know. I will personally donate $10,000.Implementation:
Once we hit our fundraising goals we'll send it to UCF to start implementing the project, at which point we'll switch over to more of a supporting/project management role. That means connecting students with the project, pulling in resources like connections with climate experts or additional funding, and communicating what's happening to you all!
While it's impossible to predict how fast these things happen, we plan to build the infrastructure this Fall, fundraise in the Spring, and hopefully plant the first trees by Summer.And guys, we've already done a lot!
Instagram account, @skiclub.uganda (Apparently we've already reached 995 different accounts!)
legal non-profit entity (state registration and EIN is complete, now applying for federal 501c3 status)
Updated story proposal (that's already been sent to NatGeo!)
Rwenzori's skiers: we've connected with Dominic Richard '96, Nicole Dreon '07, and Brody Leven '17. We're currently reaching out to more!
Planned the trip itself (leaving in 2 weeks!). Not to be underestimated, haha...
We're trying to do something amazing here. But it won't be possible without your help...
So, how can you help?Share this story with everybody who you think might interested!
Connect us with other skiers of the Rwenzoris, other non-profits or companies we should reach out to for sponsorships. Email introductions would be huge.
If you want to help build this organization or know somebody who might want to, reach out to me!
...and when it's time, donate! It will take a village, but we can do it. And we might really help a few others villages.
So what can you expect from further newsletters? Updates on what we've done, and maybe specific requests for the community.
This week is not without a big update... for our team has grown!
I'd like to introduce Morgan Long, a long-standing friend of mine who has been interested in non-profit work, conservation, and project management. She brings experience fundraising for social programs. She'll help with fundraising and managing the tree nursery project when it's up and running!
The two of us (and hopefully more soon!) will get it done.
With that, thanks for reading this far and being here with us. It really means a lot.
All the best,
Florian & Ski Club Uganda
