The OIA Outdoor Inspiration Awards, presented by Adidas Outdoor, celebrate those who inspire people to appreciate and recreate in the outdoors. OIA has chosen four winners from among hundreds of nominations to receive the 2011 honors. Selected by a panel of outdoor business and community leaders from a diverse group of finalists across three categories (Person, Group and Company), the winners of OIA's inaugural Outdoor Inspiration Awards are:
Martin Fox, Center for Global Leadership (Person)
First Descents (Group)
Mountain Mama (Company)
REI (Company)
Martin Fox is considered to be one of the best leadership educators in the country, weaving the outdoors into a diverse curriculum that focuses on making a difference in the world around you. Using the outdoors as his primary classroom, Fox is known for inspiring leaders in their younger years to carry forward and do great things while respecting the world around them.
First Descents is a non-profit group dedicated to giving young cancer survivors a taste of outdoor adventure that helps them look beyond their bodies. First Descents provides free courses in whitewater kayaking, rock climbing, mountain biking and surfing that empower young adults to regain control of their lives through outdoor adventure sports.
The Company category was split into two due to the difference in reach and resources that can affect change within the outdoor industry.
Mountain Mama was born in 2009 from the belief that women who are pregnant or newly mothers want to (and in many cases should) remain active in the outdoor pursuits that they love and want to foster in their children. Providing maternity clothing for outdoor recreation, including the only-known technical maternity snow pant, Mountain Mama has champions all over the country who sing its praises as the only product line of its kind “in the world.”
REI has built a successful business engaging consumers in the outdoors, and these same consumers reinvest again and again working with REI team members all across the country to gear-up, get advice, experience new adventures, and even travel around the world with REI Adventures. A recognized champion of the outdoor lifestyle, REI’s core purpose "to inspire, educate and outfit for a lifetime of outdoor adventure and stewardship" is very much in evidence in all that they do.
Business and outdoor leaders will gather during the evening of January 21 to recognize each winner, with mountaineer Reinhold Messner on hand to talk about his inspirations and to take part in the award presentations. The celebration will be held at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m., during the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market trade show.
OIA members and Outdoor Retailer Winter Market show attendees need to RSVP to attend the OIA Inspiration Awards celebration by visiting www.outdoorindustry.org/inspiration/rsvp. Tickets to the awards celebration can also be picked up on-site at the OIA booth, #56000.
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