The Catholic School Leaders Podcast

13 Greg Morrissey
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[00:00:00] the title of the podcast kind of shows itself based upon how our conversation goes. So, uh, so guys, I'll give you the title for it once we're all done. And, uh, this is our interview with, with Welcome to the Catholic School Leaders Podcast. My name is John Mahalio, founder and president of Elementary Advancement Solutions. Today is my honor to have Greg Morrissey on the podcast with us today. Greg's the founder of the Mountain Goat Movement. In addition to teaching high school literature and head coach of a lacrosse program, Greg has spent the last 10 years creating human powered adventures for high school and college students in the greater New York City area.

He has led thousands of young people on treks, climbing trips, surf trips, ski trips, sustainability programs, and more, both domestically and internationally. He has also raised over 100, 000 for financially restricted students to participate in meaningful outdoor excursions. Greg has presented his work to the American Alpine Club's Annual Dinner and the [00:01:00] Venerated Explorers Club.

Greg serves in advisory roles in the Next Generation of Explorers. the Explorers Club, the Scientific and Exploration Society, and the American Alpine Club. He's the ambassador of New York, and contributing writer for Kabu. Personal projects include bikepacking from Canada to Mexico, surfing the longest wave in the world, wild camping in Ireland, and numerous mountain climbs and traverses. Greg, I want to say welcome to the Catholic School Leaders Podcast. It's great to have you here.

Thank you very much, John. I'm thrilled to be here and conversing with you.

Absolutely. Well, so people are listening to this intro and they might be going, okay, that's really cool. This guy's real outdoors guy here. What does that have to do with Catholic education? As you and I have spoken offline, there's a lot to do with Catholic education and what it is that you're doing.

Talk about the role that Catholic education has played in your [00:02:00] life personally, as well as the impact that it plays in your organization right now.

It's a great question, John. So all of this stems from and is because of my Catholic faith. So I was, I was a high school literature teacher at St. Peter's Prep, which is part of the Jesuit Network, an all boys school in Jersey City, New Jersey. I also founded the school's outdoor education program, which ultimately led to what I do now.

But to backtrack my Catholic faith has served as the core of my personality since I was young. I was very grateful to grow up in a devoutly Catholic household in New Jersey and there was a moment in my life that really infused my love of the outdoors and being able to find God through adventure and through nature.

So when I was wrapping up my time in middle school, I was transitioning from eighth grade public school to St. Peter's Prep, where I ultimately taught my dad and I and our Boy Scout troop completed a trek [00:03:00] in Philmont, New Mexico over the course of two weeks. And for me, like, Growing up as a kid, like, I found going to mass as a burden.

When I was in elementary school and middle school, I didn't quite, I couldn't quite make sense of it. But that trip, being out in nature for two weeks, really changed my, my life in the sense where I felt God. It was the first time in my life where I could feel God, where I could feel his presence, where I could look around in this Philmont, New Mexico, greater area, the mountains, the rivers, the wildlife, all of it.

and, and think to myself, this is all created through intelligent design. This is all created through God. And so it's funny now that I'm in my thirties, looking back to when I was 13, 14 that experience has informed so much of my life and my work with Catholic schools and, and with students.

I, and I think that's amazing right there because I think a lot of our young folks out there are, oh, [00:04:00] okay, I gotta go to mass, I gotta, you know, to get our students excited about their faith, and to get them on fire with their faith, You're kind of taking that different approach to it with your organization to understand your your organization's work We kind of have to pause and hear about some of the trips that you've led for our students to experience Can you share some of your favorites and why those particular trips stood out and maybe kind of how your organization?

Does this for the students that that you go on these trips? And how do you determine where you're going and and some of your favorites and kind of what's the core behind that?

That's, that's a great question. So, kind of like sports or the classroom, adventure serves for a much greater purpose. And so, for me, at the core of these trips and events with students is this idea that we can impart meaningful character building and intangibles that otherwise students might not experience in a classroom setting necessarily.

So I, I build out these trips in ways to cultivate resourcefulness, grit, [00:05:00] empathy, and reflection. And so being devoutly Catholic and having been a Catholic educator and working with Catholic schools, a lot of these trips curate environments for students to pray and reflect and interact in meaningful ways with the great outdoors.

So, when I was teaching at St. Peter's 11, 12 years ago, I was working with students in Jersey City, an area where the outdoors are often an afterthought, an area where it's a bit more of a challenge to access the great outdoors. The Catskills, for example, would be probably the closest significant mountainous region, which is two hours north, and then the Jersey Shore would be a little bit over an hour south.

And so I tried to bridge this gap between students in Jersey City and to these natural landscapes. Originally, I would bring four to five students out on a weekend just for like a hike, but over time it evolved into creating these amazing expeditions, some of them over the course of two to three days.

[00:06:00] Others as long as 15 to 18 days. That model of bringing students outside led me to connect with a lot of different explorers. So, tapping into folks who work with National Geographic, the Explorers Club, the American Alpine Club, and finding good role models who are not only masters of their craft whether that's environmental science or serving as a mountain athlete, but these are folks who are also really great mentors and see the value in promoting faith based curriculum into our projects.

So the tagline for Mountain Goat Movement is, adventure from the Adirondacks to Antarctica, and it's very true. Some of the trips are, are very extensive and as a result expensive and others are very localized, free, and, serve as touch points just to get students and their families engaging in the natural world.

I think the trip that best represents what I do occurred this past summer. [00:07:00] So, in July I brought eight high school boys. Some of them, half the students were from the New York area. The other half were from as far as California. And we completed a novel, human powered adventure of the Hudson River, which I realize for a lot of folks, they're like, what the heck is that?

Essentially a single group has yet to traverse the entirety of the Hudson River, It's pretty complex, yet alone a school school group. So for about a year and a half, I worked with environmental scientists my lead partner, Dr. Joseph who's an environmental policy director in the Adirondacks.

He and I formalized an itinerary over the course of a year and a half. And then we looped in a data scientist by the name of Dr. Tim Keyes, who's a professor at Sacred Heart. And together, we created this itinerary where students hiked, canoed, kayaked, camped, and even inner tubed the entire Hudson River from the source point [00:08:00] to the sea.

So they went from the Lake Placid area the source point is called Lake Tear of the Clouds, all the way to the Atlantic Ocean in Jersey City. So Mount Marcy to Manhattan. It was a 15 day expedition. The adventure piece is, is pretty obvious. We were moving the entire time which we were so proud of our group of students.

Some of the days required 16 to 17 hours of, of movement. The curriculum piece is Dr. Tim Keyes out of Sacred Heart showed the students how to analyze the health of the river. So we pulled about 40 samples of the Hudson River looking at microplastics. And the students, alongside, with our help, produced a 15 page paper about the health of the Hudson River, a citizen science paper. All along the way, four out of the eight, those eight students came from Catholic schools. So, we weren't on our phones. We were sleeping out in tents for half of the trip. We were interacting with bald eagles. We were in remote regions [00:09:00] of New York where we didn't see anyone. So that proved to be an immensely meaningful time, especially for a generation that's so entrenched in tech, to step away from tech, to step away from the everyday norm and fully engage with the natural world.

And it, it ultimately led us to have some really meaningful prayers and reflections at our bonfire time every day. And so thinking back to what I said before, like for me, Philmont, New Mexico with my dad was that pivotal experience that inspired me to take my faith a bit more seriously. And so most of these trips are designed for Catholic schools and Catholic students and that is very much at the, top of mind in terms of, in terms of, as you said before, like how do you determine what trips to do and, and what does the dynamic of a trip look like?

It should cultivate environments for reflection and meaningful engagement with [00:10:00] nature, our peers, and God.

And I think that's when we talk about educating the whole student. There it is right there because not everything we learn is going to be in a classroom. Not everything we learn is going to be from a book. And certainly not everything we're going to learn is going to be on our cell phones. And I think that's something that I really like about what your organization is doing.

So you really seek, as I said, to educate the whole child through this model of adventure. These aren't just, as you, you kind of pointed out there, these aren't just overnight camp trips. A lot of these, okay where, okay, you're going to get dropped off at seven o'clock in the morning and, and hey, we'll pick you up tomorrow at five o'clock in the afternoon.

These are real experiences. What do you think in terms of from the student perspective, what can the students expect from these types of trips and what do the students who join these types of adventures gain from them on the on the back end?

That's a, that's a great question, John. So to date, I've worked with about 3, 000 students across trips, and I think, [00:11:00] The most important piece to all of this is that students are leaving these trips with new friends, a new sense of self, and instilled confidence. And so, these trips aren't meant to be one off, like, they're meant to curate community.

The organization that I run is called Mountain Goat Movement and the movement means twofold. Obviously this idea of like adventure and being outside, but also movement in the sense of like, we're trying to build meaningful relationships that extend beyond the adventure. So for example I do a lot of like day outings and weekend trips and things like that, but in thinking about these larger trips.

One of the trips that I lead is a trek up Kilimanjaro, and so Kilimanjaro is a seven day trek. It's one of the few big mountains in the world that's accessible. It's not technical. The everyday adventurer with the right protocols can summit Kilimanjaro. But what's amazing about Kilimanjaro are the people in Tanzania.

And so we have a [00:12:00] group of porters spearheaded by a guy named Yessi Lema, who has climbed Kilimanjaro over 500 times. And these guys are the most vibrant, life loving Christians that you'll ever meet. So, when we climb Kilimanjaro over those seven days, the adventure piece, of course, is hiking. But every night, for the better part of, like, almost two hours, We sing and dance with the Porters, and it's always Christian hymns that, that Yessi and his team find to be very meaningful.

And so, just taking a student, from the U. S. and A, going to Africa in the first place is a pretty transformative experience unto itself, but to be able to climb Kilimanjaro and then engage with folks who are perpetually smiling and positive and that all stems from their faith and seeing that and being a part of that.

is something that a young person, anyone can take with them the rest of their lives. So Kilimanjaro for that reason is a [00:13:00] trip that I like to keep putting out to schools, and I keep bringing students up Kilimanjaro because that is a trip that has the potential, like Philmon did for me, to forever change.

Anyone. I also think, when we think about the concept of school, the aim is ultimately to create, to take young girls and young boys and, and give them the tools and resources to become empathetic, thoughtful Good men and women. And I'm hoping, I'm hopeful that, with a lot of the expeditions that I lead, it propagates an environment for students to become pretty mature because they're working with limited resources.

They're being pulled out of their comfort zones. They're working really intimately in close teams. And so hopefully Mountain Goat can serve as a supplemental to school curriculum to empower students. to ultimately do what schools do for us and that's create, [00:14:00] thoughtful, empathetic servants of our community.

And I'm going to guess that at some point during these, these tracks there are those ones because you, you hit the nail on the head. They're saying that there may be some folks who say, ah, I'm a little bit nervous about this. And, and, and there may be a point where the kids get a little bit anxious about something or nervous about something, or I don't know if I can do that.

It all looked great on paper, but now that I'm here, I don't, I can't climb that or I can't, do that. How do you work through those things? I'm sure that's, that that's happened once or twice.

Yes, that's a great question. That always happens on nearly every trip. Everyone, including myself, always hits that wall. And before trips, like, I, I certainly set the context that, everyone's gonna hit that wall and, As cliche as it sounds, like, how you work through it is ultimately going to determine your personal growth on an experience.

But for a lot of the more intense trips, like a Kilimanjaro or the Hudson River trip, oftentimes those, I teeter those trips. So I work with students to build them up to that point. [00:15:00] So for example, One of my students, Ryan, who climbed Kilimanjaro going into his senior year of high school when he was a freshman, I brought him on his first hike ever, and he hated it.

It was in the Adirondacks. He was in the back of the pack, which of course doesn't mean anything, but I think he was frustrated being in the back. He, a lot of these trips are, type two fun, where they might not be fun in the moment, but they're fun after the fact, and that's where the growth is realized.

But that first hike his freshman year, he did not like it. My sense was that he would never want to hike again, and I was certainly bummed about that. But, Two weeks after that hike, he kept thinking about it. He wanted to do it again. And so he kept going on hikes and it kept progressing and building.

And ultimately, within two and a half years before graduating high school, Ryan had somebody kill him in Jarl. And that experience for him, changed his life in a lot of different ways. Like for one after graduating high school, Ryan felt like he didn't want to go to college. He wanted to take a gap year and kind of get a [00:16:00] sense of what's out there.

And so, During his gap year, he attended a community college and took some courses he played hockey, he worked various odd jobs he was able to kind of, grow in a way that maybe he wouldn't be able to going exactly from high school to college, and so, for Ryan, like Kilimanjaro, a trip like Kilimanjaro can give a young person the confidence to begin to make decisions for themselves that are best for them.

So that, that, that would be one example. But again, like, I work with a lot of students who've never engaged in the outdoors. I work with a lot of students who are coming from urban environments and perhaps have never seen the mountain before. One of the students on our trip for the Hudson River Expedition, as intense as it was had never been north of the Catskills or to the Adirondacks.

And, which is an interesting concept because the Adirondacks is the largest protected park in the continental U. S. and it's only four hours north of New York City. So some of these students who [00:17:00] are from the New York City area, aren't aware of what's just four hours north of them. And so, I try to bridge the gap there.

The other piece to this John, is that I, I, I spend a lot of time thinking critically about the mentors that we want to have on these trips. So a lot of the folks that I bring in are very seasoned and they're masters of some type of discipline. But more importantly than that, just like a good teacher, these are folks who can connect with the students on a very meaningful level.

Like, they can reach them where they currently are and they can build them up where they currently are. And I, I think that's immensely important and probably the most important I hope that's helpful.

Yeah, no, no, that, and I, and I think you, we're, we all know the things that we, we can do or we can't, and I think it's that expanding to say, well, I didn't think I could do that, and, and I was able to, that really, really is the growth piece of it. Now, a lot of [00:18:00] folks out there might be listening to this, and they hear these programs that you're offering, they hear about these trips, they're like, that's really cool, that sounds great.

But there's no way in the world I'm going to be able to do that. It's either it's number one, I can't be gone for two weeks. Or number two, I, I can't afford that. I, the whole variety of reasons and, and they just dismiss that. How do you make this so that these experiences can be available for anybody who wants to join them?

Yes, great question. The focus for Mountain Goat is to make these programs as accessible as possible. So the bulk of trips and experiences are very localized and short. So, for example this past winter in February, I brought a hundred about a hundred high school students from a couple different Catholic schools in the greater New York area on ski weekend.

So, we drove from, the New Jersey area up to Vermont, and on Saturday and Sunday, we skied. I had looped in a professional skier, a drone [00:19:00] pilot. A a product engineer from Arc'teryx who talks about the science and engineering behind outdoor wear. And I connected, the, the adventure piece was a skiing piece and the snowboarding and students learning that wherever they are in their skiing and snowboarding.

But then more importantly, like connecting them to folks who have created out careers in the outdoor industry. And then what's really cool is like attending mass. In Vermont, and allow, oftentimes a lot of the pastors at parishes in Vermont will ski, so we've also skied with some of the priests that we've interacted with up in Vermont, which is awesome but you know, that, that would be just a weekend outing.

I do a lot of events where we might host a film festival or a speaker series. And I'll loop in explorers, conservationists thought leaders I'm actually John, working with the Knights of Columbus in my town to put together an event called Finding God Through Adventure and so we're going to loop in a lot of the Catholic schools in our area and our parishes [00:20:00] and, all basically recruit a panel of folks, talk about how they were able to engage with and find God, Through adventure through the outdoors.

So events like that are really meaningful. I think, with Mountain Goat, I want to meet young people where they are, and I always kind of assume that that folks have very limited outdoor experience, maybe just given the nature of where I live in the, in the New Jersey area. And, the first touch point of engagement in the outdoors should be one that cultivates a feeling of love and a feeling of, of, I want to keep doing this.

And so that's

I want to go back,

Yes.

right? I want to go back. I got to do more of this.

Yes. I want to go back. I want to keep doing this. I want to step away from my phone every now and then and go for a hike or go for a two hour walk in my neighborhood. Like, those, those things are just so, so meaningful and so accessible. And then the other piece.

is I work with a lot of different outdoor brands to fundraise for students. So, to date [00:21:00] I've been able to raise about 140, 000, which has gone on to fund upwards of 100 students on various outdoor trips. So some of these students have been able to go to places like Peru and see Machu Picchu.

Some of them learned how to ski, snowboard, hike. One boy came down to Costa Rica and learned how to surf and so accessibility is, is always top of mind and ensuring that we can create resources for students to experience the outdoors in all of these programs.

Yeah, because we want to make sure that somebody, anybody that wants to do this will find a way to make it happen. If your desire is there, it sounds like it's something that you're really willing to to get folks on board with. One of the things that, that you shared with me was, was your desire to partner with Catholic schools.

I know you just touched a little bit there with the Knights of Columbus, but, but really you want to partner with Catholic schools moving forward to really incorporate that faith component into your future expeditions. Tell me why this is important to you and, [00:22:00] and how do you hope to do this through this program?

yes, that's a great question. So right now I work with a few Catholic schools here in New Jersey, and I'm hoping to build that out throughout other regions. So, being that where I taught is a part of the larger Jesuit network I do have a great relationship with the Jesuit network, which, as houses high schools and colleges all over the world.

So one of the points that I'm trying to build out for the Jesuit network. is next summer we would like to take a group to do the Camino, the final seven day stretch in Spain and France, It would be a great trip and have, students from all these different Jesuit schools and of course like parishes and anyone can join, but have them come together and meet so that you could have a student from Xavier, a student from St.

Peter's, a student from Fordham, all come and meet for the first time and have teachers from all over the world meet for the first time. And I think a trip like that is amazing because again, like it's not about the [00:23:00] adventure. The adventure is an avenue for something more. So something like the Camino that is rooted in the Jesuit Catholic tradition serves as a place, a meeting place for all of these pilgrims to come together and then build relationships post trip and go back to their school communities and be servants of their communities and take what they've learned from these educators and students from all over these different schools and continue to build out the Catholic mission.

Again, like your question before is great, John, like that's a seven day trip. So of course that means time away from family, from work, et cetera. Where can we have, a day gathering? So, what I'm hoping to do for next school year is go to different Catholic schools and recruit an explorer, conservationist, mountain athlete, someone to join me.

And over the course of a day do like a localized project and try to build that into curriculum. So perhaps that means working with an environmental science teacher [00:24:00] and maybe there's a river right down the street from the school so we could do water quality testing and then we could go for an hour long hike.

And we can begin to impart this idea of inspiring the next generation of global stewards to look around their areas at home and get a sense of their environment and ultimately a desire to protect it and engage with it and ultimately see God within their own backyard, to see their landscape, in these new, exciting ways, because you're, you're taking ownership, you're doing an activity there.

And so I'm, I'm trying my best to do that, like, one of the days that I'm doing upcoming is I'm working with Mount St. Dominic's, which is an all girls school in New Jersey. and we're bringing 20 girls up to Liberty State Park in Jersey City. No one thinks of Jersey City as having an outdoor environment, but the reality is that Liberty State Park has great opportunities to kayak and go on nature [00:25:00] walks and paddleboard.

and bike. You can see World Trade right across the water. And so for these girls, I'm trying to instill a sense of, of appreciation and love for the nature that can be found in an urban environment that's only 30 minutes from their school.

I love the fact that. You talked a little bit ago about getting folks together. It's, it's one thing to start it off and say, Hey, I know you, I'm going to go with a friend and I'm going to get started this way, but then to grow that into something where you're going to go on an adventure and you might be the only person from your school who's going on that adventure.

But knowing that when you leave, you're going to have made 15, 20, maybe even more new friends that you've shared that adventure with, and I think when we, You can share that adventure and share that sense of accomplishment with people, even if we didn't know them coming in there's gonna be that lifelong bond and that lifelong connection there.

Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Like, when you're [00:26:00] thrown into an environment where you, teamwork is such like a cliche thing to say, and like, we can make sense of it in sports. In the classroom, it can often be difficult, I feel like but on an adventure, like, you, you, you do everything, like, you, you sleep in a tent, you break bread with these people, you see the best and worst in people, like, you do all of it you're thrown into the depths of life over the course of maybe two days, and so it's almost impossible to not walk away with a new meaningful friendship, it almost, like, expedites Or speeds up the process of building a meaningful relationship.

And, and they're, and they're learning something all along the way. I, and I love the fact that you're incorporating elements of curriculum very covertly out in the open so that they're learning something and they're actually applying real world skills to things that they may have heard in a classroom, but not been so excited about when they heard them the first time.

Yes, yes, exactly. [00:27:00] Like, maybe that's a great point, John. Like, you hear it in a classroom, but then it's like, this doesn't apply to my life. But then when you actually go out and do it and you learn by trial by fire and experiential learning, then I feel like young people and all people ultimately take ownership of the, of the experience and the skills that can be learned.

So you've created some really great experiences for students across the world, and I know you and I have had the chance to talk about this prior to us connecting for this, for this interview. What's upcoming for the Mountain Goat Movement over the next 12 to 18 months, because I think some of the trips that you've got planned are, are some really spectacular things.

Yeah,

you, John. I really appreciate it. So there are some really exciting things upcoming. And one of my goals for 2024 2025 is to begin to incorporate teachers in a more meaningful way. So, one of the, I, one of the partners that I'm building out right now is an organization called Live Wildly.

They are based in Florida. They are a team of [00:28:00] conservationists who are protecting over 35 parks in Florida. And they're creating these. Two to five day long trips where people can go on an adventure experience Florida, and also connect with conservationists. And so what I want to do is create a professional development weekend or three day event down in Florida, where we can partner with LiveWildly.

I'd like to focus on more localized events and trips. So September 14, 2024, I've partnered with the state of New Jersey and the city of Jersey City. to host the first ever NJ Day of Adventure where we're inviting anyone and everyone to come out to Liberty State Park in Jersey City for a day of fun.

So we'll have kayaks, paddleboards, bikes, a rock climbing wall, local musicians, food trucks. We'll have a panel of speakers from schools and [00:29:00] explorers and scientists all gathering in one place for a day of fun to showcase how, how accessible the outdoors can be, even in an urban environment to showcase that the natural world is never divorced from our day to day.

So really excited for that. The larger trips would be December 2024. I'm taking a group down to Antarctica. And we're going down via very small vessel so that we can access the landmass. We have a bunch of ski trips with schools for the months of January and February. And then, the Camino we're looking to do the Camino in July, August 2025.

And I think that's a trip that I would love to invite the entire Catholic network to be a part of so that, John, similar to your podcast, we can have all these folks from all different walks of life tied to our Catholic network to come together and be a part of something special. I, I think, John, like, our synergy is, is in alignment and our [00:30:00] mission is similar in the sense that ultimately, like, through your podcast, you're bringing Catholic leaders.

Together who otherwise would never meet each other. And I'm hoping that over the course of next year, I can do the same through experiences with Mountain Goat Movement.

some amazing, amazing experiences. And I want to make sure that everybody heard that one right there. There wasn't a glitch. There wasn't a, you're taking a group of kids to Antarctica. Like, that's happening, Like, that's happening right there. So, so, I mean, when we talk about trips that are adventure, And talk about experiences that you may not get to have any other way.

And we're all doing this built around the faith. And we're all doing this built through adventure. And so, when we talk about Greg's organization, this is, this is something that is unique. I think it's really one of a kind and, and it's really great what you're doing there. So school leaders are out there right now, or, or maybe some teachers who are adventure driven are out there right now, listening to this podcast, getting really excited about the trips that you're [00:31:00] doing for these kids or trips that they want to even say, Hey, I'd love to be part of that.

How can a school contact you and partner with you on future expeditions?

Thanks John. So, I'm a one man team. My direct email is Mountain Goat movement@gmail.com. That's perhaps the best way to get in touch. I'm on my email, email 24 7. So, I'm always eager to, to hear from school leaders. from students, from families, anyone and everyone who's interested in this stuff.

The website is mountaingoatmovement. com. And then, we have like an Instagram page, a YouTube channel, things like that. So folks can get a sense of what the trips look like. But yes, I'm, I'm eager to connect with anyone and everyone who is in the Catholic school space who wants to curate meaningful experiences for the next generation of, of stewards.

And, and, when we talked as well before, even if you're listening to these things, you go, wow, that's all the way across country and things like [00:32:00] that. Greg is looking for new adventures in your neck of the woods as well. And I know that was one of the things that we were talking about was where I'm located and where you're located things like that.

So if you're in an area and this is something that you're interested in doing for your students, reach out to Greg because he's the guru here. He knows what opportunities may exist out there. And if he doesn't know, I know it's something that he's willing to learn about.

Yes, absolutely. And John, to your point, I'd like to add, all of these projects have stemmed from curiosity. And I believe that no dream is too big. So the Hudson River trip that we, that we pulled off, all stemmed from two students talking on the back porch of someone's deck. And then lo and behold, a year and a half later, we create, we created this amazing project and those two students did it.

The Antarctica trip. stemmed from a conversation in my classroom six years prior, and it took me three years to find permits and partners and do all the work, and we got it going. Those are the bigger trips, but even as [00:33:00] something as simple as, taking an hour during the lunch and leaving school campus and going for a hike and students seeing for the first time their peers on campus who are interested in this stuff, exchanging numbers, and then doing, a monthly hike together.

Like, all of these things are possible. I think it's just a matter of connecting the dots and executing on ideas.

And there's no wrong time of year to get out and explore the outdoors. I mean if you have the spring, you're that then you're seeing everything in bloom. The summer I recognize is a little hot, but, but you know, that your weather is, is you have a greater chance of the weather being nice. And, and my personal favorite time of year, fall you can't beat it in terms of being outdoors in terms of seeing the leaves change and the foliage and everything like that.

So there's no wrong time to get out and enjoy the outdoors for sure.

Amen, amen. It's all wonderful.

Well, Greg, I want to thank you so much for your time today and, and wish you and your organization many prayers [00:34:00] and much success in the future.

Thank you, John. I appreciate our friendship and your mentoring and I'm excited to keep, keep this thing moving.

Absolutely. Thank you, Greg.

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