Community and joy in the outdoors at The Oath’s 1st ever in-person event

I recently moved back to Seattle, WA and have prioritized trying to find community especially in the outdoors. I’m queer (AND I’M HERE) and I’m a woman of color. I seek organizations that are intersectional and check off at least two of my fun little identities. But it’s difficult to find intersectional community spaces! 

Back in April 2023, the Outdoorist Oath hosted our first-ever in-person community event: Stretch Sessions Boulder. Stretch Sessions are our form of continuous education, and you can find more info here (it’s like yoga, but for your allyship journey!). We acted as a connector and platform for over ten community-based organizations to come together and host 17 Stretch Sessions for over 150 attendees. It was free for attendees, it brought together local organizations, outdoorists (YOU!), outdoor industry and conservation folks,, and it was beautiful. 

We spent a day essentially going to Adult Summer Camp where some people took nature portraits, some people made art, some people learned how to dance, others engaged in learning the 17 principles of environmental justice, some did trail maintenance, others dreamed policy changes for their communities, and others got hyped over a surprise drag show!

I hosted a reflective introspective hike and walk with Oath co-founder Pattie Gonia where we asked participants to elect themselves into different conversational groups based on their identities and prompts we provided. Together we learned and unlearned about life experiences. We had tears and vulnerable sharings with people who had come into the event as complete strangers. I remember finding myself marveling at the power of safe spaces and community! 

This event shed light on The Oath’s unique positioning to facilitate creating the space to bring together local community groups that offer critical programming to often overlooked groups in the areas of planet (sustainability), inclusion, and (outdoor) adventure. Community-level organizations and movements often do not have the funding or bandwidth to meet with other community leaders and groups who may offer critical learning, co-creating, and affinity spaces. With the support of co-founder Pattie’s Giving Tuesday Fundraiser, we were able to make this happen for our community, and perhaps more tangibly, their communities close to home (where the ‘real’, or ‘implementable’ change happens!).    

The best feedback we received from the event was: 1) folks had SO MUCH FUN; 2) people learned about local groups and work they can get involved in that they’d never heard of before; 3) participants found new friends with aligned values; and 4) folks wanted to go to more than one session, and wanted a repeat in 2024! This was our definition of success and we are so grateful the day accomplished just that for so many.

Fast forward to today. Now I’m back in Seattle, I’m looking back at our amazing energizing community in Boulder and how The Outdoorist Oath was able to facilitate bringing everyone together. It became an intersectional space because of the intention behind who all attended. We need more spaces like this. In my dream, we have a version of this type of community connection in every city multiple times a year. 

In our full-length Outdoorist Oath Workshop, we provide a toolkit on how to take action at the intersections of planet, inclusion, and adventure through their outdoor experiences and identify how they can uniquely show up for all three, in relationship, together, simultaneously. We often ask the question, ‘What brings you joy?’. While participants ponder the question, I usually offer personal examples like taking naps, backpacking deep in the Washington backcountry, cooking for people I care about, comparing worldviews through travel stories, and of course, eating potatoes (important: very different from sweet potatoes, in my humble opinion).  

Thinking back to the question we post in our workshops, ‘What brings you joy?’. At the top of my list is now ‘community’. As the TikTok and Instagram star (@taryndelaniesmith) once said, ‘people bring me joy’. This experience of coming together for what essentially was an adult summer camp of playing and learning brought out joy in so many aspects, and the thing tying us all together was the community we were part of, and the communities we are building together. 

It was an honor to be there for our first in-person Stretch Sessions. I hope if you’re reading this, you’ll join us for our next one. 

Written by Maya Sullivan, the Outdoorist Oath’s Administrative Magician and Workshop Facilitator. You can find Maya in Seattle, WA hunching over for 20 minutes digging the perfect cat hole, perusing the shelves of yet another second hand bookshop, being unnecessarily snobbish about the best blonde coffee roast, or seeking out the best soba shop in town. You can reach her at maya@outdooristoath.org or @mayaguchi on Instagram.