If you've ever been to the Colin Arthur Dionne Memorial camp site in the Eldred Valley, you can't help but immediately wonder: "Wow, who did all of this?" The climber's camp site, all of the structures and amenities, and all of the trails are the product of a very small group of local climber's hard work. Much of that original work was done by Colin himself, and the impressive scale and quality of the area is a testament to the man's unstoppable passion for sharing what he loved.
Of course, no one can do it alone, and it takes a community of climber's who share that passion and love of labour to keep developing the areas, as well as to maintain them. This is no easy task, and everything is done for free. They spend their own hard earned money to purchase tools, supplies, the giant tarp, keep the out-house stocked, and anything else that's needed every season. Not to mention the hundreds of dollars it takes to buy bolts and hangers for routes...
Every May, the Access Society (
http://www.access-society.ca/) helps to sponsor the 'Adopt a Crag' event where we band together to do some heavy labour on the trails. Other than this, it is the unseen and un-recognized devotion of local climbers that give us all the incredible opportunity to climb here.
While in the Valley this summer, a group of Americans were so impressed with the camp, that they had trouble digesting the fact that it was free to use. They were adamant about paying something, despite repeatedly being told that 'There's no one to pay, we do this for free!' Finally, they just left $40.00 on the table and told me to use it for something. I realized that maybe other people would be inspired to generosity in the same way, and so now I've created the Donation button.
Since this is not a business or organization, the donations go to my personal e-mail address. To ensure transparency, whenever a donation is made I will post the tally, and whenever a purchase is made will post what it was for and a receipt if I can. If you don't like that system, please donate to the Access Society. Though not as direct, the money will still go to a good access related cause somewhere.
Oh and PS, the $40 they gave me was going to go into a splitting maul for the wood shed, but Matt discovered an apparently amazing bouldering area across the river, so the money went to him to eventually buy a cable for a new crossing.
Donate now! The donation button is on the top right of the home page. Thanks in advance!
