VO at Whole Foods

[UPDATE - New Date] Do your grocery shopping on Wednesday, February 17 at Whole Foods in Shadyside and Whole Foods will donate 5% of their total daily sales to Venture Outdoors!

We’ll be at the store from 10:00 AM – 10:00 PM in the café area offering special discounts and gifts memberships. If you’re looking for a perfect gift, we will be offering special Dual and Family Gift Memberships including Activities and Kayak Pittsburgh passes. Stop by our table with your February 17 receipt from Whole Foods and receive a coupon for $5 off a rental at Kayak Pittsburgh.

Please stop by Whole Foods to say Hi to our staff and support Venture Outdoors!

Whole Foods is located at: 5880 Centre Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15206.

This event was originally scheduled for Wednesday, February 10, but was postponed due to weather conditions.

Meet Chris Corbran: now with business cards!

As Venture Outdoors’ best, (and first,) Trip Leader Specialist Coordinator, you can expect more than a ruggedly handsome face to hike, paddle, and fish alongside. Joking aside, you will see me on future Family and Community Programs leading groups of first timers and seasoned adventurers into the deep, dark woods of Pittsburgh’s City Parks.
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Final days of gift giving!

The heat is on! We are down to the last few days of holiday shopping. Venture Outdoors has lots of great gift ideas to satisfy everyone on your list. Our gift membership packages make excellent gifts.

Each package comes with extra bonuses to make sure your loved ones get the most out of their membership for the entire year. Gift memberships start at just $20, and come in student, individual, dual and family packages. Every package includes:

• Kayak Pittsburgh Rental Passes
• Venture Outdoors Program Passes
• Venture Outdoors Bumper Sticker

Or if your loved ones are already members, give them some stylish Venture Outdoors Gear. We have a new style of beanie this holiday, complete with tassels and extended coverage for your ears. Or the popular L.L.Bean fleece lined vest makes a great gift. We’re selling them for the same price as L.L.Bean but with the Venture Outdoors logo embroidered on the front.

All gift memberships and gear must be purchased by 4:00 PM on Monday, December 21 to ensure delivery by Friday, December 25.

Hitting mailboxes soon: The Trailhead

The people have spoken. We polled our audience on their favorite name for our new publication, and the winner is…The Trailhead! The first issue of The Trailhead should hit mailboxes anytime and contains our public programs planned for the next two months and exciting membership updates.

We are offering 62 programs over the next two months, including 22 hikes, 11 family trips, 12 cross country ski outings, 10 snowshoe outings, 6 leadership trainings and 1 winter camping introduction. All of these trips are geared to get you outside and active, while enjoying the winter landscape of Southwestern Pennsylvania.

The memberships section includes information on our holiday membership packages, 2010 renewal incentives and information on the Sustaining Members Series.

Watch your mailbox for a copy of The Trailhead, or for a sneak peak flip though it online.

Grants Update: Three in one

Jackson Charitable Trust backs Family & Community Programs
Venture Outdoors just heard from the trustees of the John E. and Sue M. Jackson Charitable Trust that they’re awarding $2,500 in support of the Family and Community Programs, which seek to make getting outside easy for families with weekly family programming, monthly Family Outdoor Fests, community outreach and more!

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Backrubs-and-Bodyworks

We are excited to announce the addition of Backrubs-and Bodyworks to our Merchant Discount list. Venture Outdoors Members now receive 10% off any massage service at their studio in Downtown Pittsburgh!

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How to Survive Anything: VO Edition

Do you know how to survive in the woods with nothing? Well, hopefully you are never faced with this situation, but in case you do find yourself in it, there are some practical skills that will help you out.

These skills were the topic of our recent Wilderness Awareness and Survival Class and were also the feature of Sunday’s Post Gazette article by John Hayes entitled Practice practical survival techniques.

The article and class discussed emergency shelter building, fire starting, finding water, signaling and self-awareness of one’s place in nature, but more importantly included techniques which prevent you from ever getting into dangerous situations in the first place.

Read the full article here: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09326/1015103-140.stm

Twenty-three minutes and three new liftetime members

It took just twenty-three minutes for Pittsburgher’s to donate over $1 million to area nonprofits on the Pittsburgh Foundation’s first ever Match Day. Venture Outdoors had 16 people make donations through the PittsburghGives website, and an additional 23 people donated on our website after the matching funds had been exhausted.

The matching funds are still being confirmed but we are estimating that over $16,900 was raised for Venture Outdoors on that day, making October 28th the single biggest day of individual giving in Venture Outdoors history. Thank you to everyone who donated! Read more

Where are your fellow members?

A friend of Venture Outdoors, Kevin Perkey, of 3rc recently shared these maps of our membership growth over the past four years. Kevin created the maps using GIS technology and the history in our database.

Check out the maps below to see how we have grown and find your dot! Read more

AutumnFest 2009: The dogs had their day!

On October 17, Venture Outdoors celebrated its 2nd annual AutumnFest Members Day at South Park. Despite the unseasonably cool and rainy weather, Venture Outdoors staff and members had a great day outside celebrating our members and the season. The fall foliage at South Park was a breathtaking patchwork of reds and yellows as we hit the trail for a variety of hikes including a Doggie Day Trek and a Tyke Hike, and we enjoyed the friendly company of our canine friends, who were in full force to celebrate this special day.
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