It’s our 20 Year Anniversary!
That’s 20 years of support from Santa Barbara and beyond doing what we love every day. We are a premier outfitter on the central coast of California, we operate sea cave kayaking tours in Channel Islands National Park, coastal kayaking tours, surf + SUP, wine tours, teambuilding, outdoor education and more. We started in 1998 and want to celebrate by giving back this year, with 20 Days of Giving Back #Giving20SB
We finished all 20 of our days of giving back! These were all completed in a year, but of course we are looking forward to continue giving back as much as we can. We loved this experience because we feel it brought us closer to the community, meet incredible people and feel like we made a positive difference. If you have any ideas on organizations in need, leave them in the comments!
First, enjoy a blast from the past with some of these photos over the past 20 years:
Below are days of giving back we completed, all in the year 2018!
1. Beach clean-up with the Surfrider Foundation
We kicked off 20 Days of Giving Back by organizing a beach clean up with our staff, along with the Surfrider Foundation. That blue ocean and beautiful sandy beach deserves our love!
2. Supporting local families
After the heart-wrenching devastation that Montecito and surrounding communities endured with the debris flow, we wanted to donate to local families who had lost most everything, particularly their gear that helps them get outside. An REI gift card seemed like the ticket!
3. Board game donations to Unity Shoppe
At Santa Barbara Adventure company, we LOVE board games, we have a weekly game night and it made us so bummed to think some people don’t even have board games to play with. We teamed up with Unity Shoppe in downtown Santa Barbara and hosted a board game drive, people were able to drop off gently-used board games.
4. Collecting Shoes to Donate to Soles4Souls
We worked with Soles4Souls and came up with over 100 pairs of shoes to donate!
5. First Responder Day
We invited Search and Rescue members out to Santa Cruz Island with Island Packers as ferry service and Channel Islands Provisioners providing lunch. It was incredible to be able to host these brave men and women and their families in a day of sea cave kayaking!
6. Supporting the Koala Exhibit at the Santa Barbara Zoo
We are all about conservation and education, so when we found out the Santa Barbara Zoo was getting a new koala exhibit, we were excited to help out. We made a donation to support the exhibit and even visited the koalas on their grand opening! The zoo even has a couple Channel Islands foxes, which of course we are partial to working with the endemic species at the Channel Islands National Park.
7. Volunteering with the Santa Barbara County Food Bank
The group sales and marketing managers took an afternoon to decompress and visited our friends at the Santa Barbara County Food Bank. There, they helped sort food to be distributed to groups and individuals in need. The Santa Barbara County food bank is always in need of volunteers and has really fun opportunities to get to meet new people and make a positive difference in the community.
8. CycleMAYnia! Our team biked almost 1,000 miles during May
Our team worked to reduce emissions and get exercise and biked to work as much as we could during the month of May. Together we obtained almost 1,000 miles and supported local organization Traffic Solutions.
9. Donated to Channel Islands Restoration
Channel Islands Restoration ensures the islands remain pristine and productive. Any donation to them goes a long way in protecting the place we love most!
10. Fourth of July Beachfront Cleanup
Independence Day is always fun, but it does end up with a lot of litter if people don’t take the time to properly dispose of their party materials. On the way to work some staff members stopped to clean up a section of waterfront and was impressed with the results! The city employees were working long after we were so give them a high five when you see them!
11. Holiday Fire Clean-Up Volunteering
The Holiday Fire in Goleta came suddenly and many people their home and everything in it. The Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade is a local organization that helps sift through debris and find things of importance or values for families to reconnect with. Some of our staff volunteered with the Bucket Brigade and were humbled by the opportunity.
12. Native Planting with Channel Islands Restoration
Channel Islands Restoration gathers volunteers to assist with native plants in the Channel Islands and beyond. Some of our staff actually went out to San Nicolas island (a remote island part of the Channel Islands) to help restore native plant habitat. Other staff went to Camarillo to prepare plants for the journey.
13. Food Drive with Island Packers and Food Bank of Santa Barbara County
We teamed together with our friends at Island Packers (the ferry company who services Channel Islands National Park) and organized a food drive with barrels guests and employees alike could donate to.
14. Recycling Energy Bar Wrappers with TerraCycle
We eat a lot of energy bars in our line of work (and so do our guests!) Terracycle is a program that makes it easy to recycle these wrappers so they stay out of the landfill. We ship a box of them off to Terracycle as soon as it’s full – easy as that!
15. Serving Food at Picnic in the Park!
Picnic in the Park is an incredible program put on by the Santa Barbara County Food Bank. Kids and their families can come to the determined location (usually a park or library) and are offered a free healthy lunch, fun books and games! Some of our guides volunteered and loved getting to meet these fun, fabulous kids!
16. A Service Day with Teva
We took the Teva team out in our backyard for a fun day of trail restoration and maintenance! We had perfect conditions to get our hands dirty and give back to our trails, which are a huge part of what makes Santa Barbara so special. It was a fun day of service to the local trails we love.
17. Donated to Marathoners Raising Money to Help the Water Crisis
Our friend Noelle at Visit Santa Barbara and her husband are joining together to run a marathon to fight the global water crisis. We donated to this year’s cause…$50 = clean water for 1 child for life.
18. Made a Donation to the HomeForGood Foundation
The Home for Good Foundation in Santa Barbara County is designed to house the most vulnerable individuals and families experiencing homelessness in Santa Barbara County. One main avenue of housing these people is through reunification.
19. Created a Social Media Contest with Proceeds Going to Direct Relief, to help California fire victims
The Camp Fire in Paradise, California combined with the Hill and Woolsey Fires in Malibu area made for some of the most devastating fires in California’s history. Santa Barbara Adventure Company gave $1.00 for each person to comment on a specific Instagram post, and the response was outstanding! Direct Relief improves the health and lives of people affected by poverty or emergencies.
20. Social Media Contest Supporting Channel Islands Park Foundation
The National Marine Sanctuary Foundation is the official non-profit partner of the National Marine Sanctuary System. Their mission is to protect species, conserve ecosystems, and preserve America’s maritime heritage.
