The 2013 Base Camp Bash Is Almost Upon Us!

It’s go time everyone! We’ve been training for this day all year and now it is less that two weeks away. Drum roll please…

The 2013 Base Camp Bash is almost upon us on Saturday, April 20th, 2013 from 7-10pm at Artwork Network in Denver, CO.

What is the Base Camp Bash you ask? Only the most fun and exciting event the Cottonwood Institute hosts once a year to raise money to support our programs to connect students to the outdoors and empower them to tackle local environmental issues.

Why is this one of the coolest nonprofit events ever to happen you wonder? Here are a two reasons you should drop everything and buy your tickets at the door!

1. The Best Food And Beverages Denver Has To Offer: We will be featuring “S’mores Pancakes” from Snooze, Cottonwood Organic White beer from Wynkoop Brewing Company, and great wine. For just a few more bucks you can come to the VIP party from 5:30pm – 7pm before the main event and enjoy a local cocktail tasting with mixologists from Ace Eat Serve and Steuben’s featuring spirits from Leopold Bros. and appetizers from The Kitchen restaurant.
2. A Fabulous Silent Auction: We have adventurous auction items, including: A luxurious 4-night stay to one of 20 exotic locations courtesy of Portico, outdoor gear from Mountainsmith, restaurant gift certificates to the best restaurants in Denver like Root Down, and much more! To check out what we have so far and to start bidding, Click Here.

What are you waiting for? Buy your tickets at the door!

What’s that? You have another commitment that night you just can’t wiggle out of? Well it better be a good excuse…But seriously, you will be missed, AND there are still two ways you can help:

1. You can Pre-Bid on our amazing silent auction items until Friday, April 19th, 2013 at 5:00pm. Pre-bids will open up the bidding at the main event on April 20th, so if you can’t come and you really want something, bid high! Remember, we all need to buy gifts for friends and family, so why not shop at our auction and support a great cause?
2. You can make a Tax-Deductible Donation to help support our programs for underserved students. School budgets are still being cut and the Cottonwood Institute is providing life-changing programs for underserved students in the Denver/Boulder area. All donations from the Base Camp Bash help support our high priority programs with Casa de la Esperanza, New Vista High School, Operation: Military Kids, Strive Preparatory Schools, and more.

SPONSORS:

We could not pull all this off without the incredible support of our sponsors and VIPs this year. They support great organizations like the Cottonwood Institute, so please support them!

$5,000+ Level Sponsors

$2,500 Level Sponsors:

Dr. and Mrs. John M. Church, Jr.

$1,000 Level Sponsors:

 

Anonymous, Dr. and Mrs. Stefan Mokrohisky, Dr. and Mrs. William Conway, Linda Bjork, Mr. and Mrs. Chris Zook

$500 Level Sponsors:

Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Waters

Snooze Is Ready For The Hunger Games

After heading to the hills to escape the July heat to participate in an intense survival training with the Cottonwood Institute, Snooze Staff are officially ready for the Hunger Games.

They broke into two teams for an extreme competition where they battled it out. The winner would receive serious bragging rights and the loser had to buy the first round at Oskar Blues after the course.

They participated in a few games to get things rolling, completed a survival scenario to learn about survival priorities, and then kick in their A-game to compete in a survival shelter competition. Who won? You be the judge.

Because we were in a fire ban this summer, we unfortunately did not have a chance to practice our mad survival fire making skills, but we did have a chance to organize a throwing stick competition before our lightning safety skills were put to a real test. An afternoon storm rolled in quickly,  the temperature dropped, and a severe downpour and lightening ensued, so we decided to head to the safety of our vehicles and get out of Dodge.

After making it out of the field safely, but very, very wet, we relived the crazy day over a refreshing brew at Oskar Blues. Overall, it was a good day and everyone left with the confidence that they have what it takes to survive if they ever get caught out in the mountains.

To check out a slide show of the action, Click Here.

In memory of Zach Johns.

2012 Base Camp Bash Was A Rockin’ Success!

The Cottonwood Institute’s 2012 Base Camp Bash was a rockin’ success. On Saturday, April 28th, 2012, Artwork Network was transformed from an art gallery into a vibrant base camp packed with outdoor enthusiasts who gathered to help raise money for the Cottonwood Institute’s 2012 programs to connect underserved kids to the outdoors and empower them to tackle local environmental issues.

Thanks to our patrons, sponsors, and attendees, we were able to raise over $40,000 to help support our projects with West Denver Preparatory Charter School, Casa de la Esperanza, New Vista High School, Lakewood High School, and Operation: Military Kids.

Snooze tantalized our taste buds with their delicious food and s’mores pancakes, Wynkoop Brewing Company, Mondo Vino, and Leopold Bros. cleansed our palates with their beer, wine, and local spirits, while The Cottonwood Trio set the tone for the night with their rocking’ tunes as everyone was whipped into a bidding frenzy for our amazing auction.

In addition to the Bash, we had a fabulous Patron Party on Sunday, April 22nd, 2012 for our patrons and sponsors at the private home of Stephen and Genie Waters. The Acker Jazztet played live Dixieland jazz, while we sipped on southern cocktails from Steuben’s and devoured Po-Boys, Jambalaya, and Shrimp Maison.

But it all started with the Kick Off Party on Friday, March 30th, 2012 when 5280 Magazine and Wynkoop Brewing Company hosted a fun party to kick off Earth Month and unveil their limited-edition Cottonwood Organic White beer to benefit the Cottonwood Institute and our programs.

We could not have pulled everything off without the amazing support of our donors, patrons, and sponsors, including: 5280 Magazine, Wynkoop Brewing Company, Snooze, the Taddonio Family Foundation, Colorado Business Bank, Messner & Reeves, St. Charles Capital, Climax Molybdenum, CASI, Artwork Network, and Ownership Transfer Planning, Inc.

If you were not able to attend and still want to help support our programs, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today, by Clicking Here.

To check out a slide show of all three events, Click Here.

Takeaways From The 2nd Annual Johnson & Wales Environmental Leadership Summit

On Friday, March 16, 2012, 13 motivated Johnson & Wales Environmental Leadership Academy students and staff packed Fluid Meeting Spaces in Denver to learn more about environmental issues and what they can do to address them. The Cottonwood Institute put together an exciting day of activities and guest speakers to highlight examples of people and organizations that are truly changing the world. Here are a few takeaways from the day:

In the morning, Ford Church spoke about how he started the Cottonwood Institute, we walked through an interactive process highlighting how their students tackle local environmental issues, and learned about the Cycle of Cynicism and the Cycle of Hope. After showing Derek Siver’s video called How To Start A Movement, a big takeaway was that you don’t always have to be a leader to change the world – the first follower is critical to starting any movement.

We showed a video called the Story of Stuff and learned more about our waste cycle, including extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal and what we can do to help. We were shocked to learn that 99% of the things we buy from stores end up in a landfill within six months. Click Here for 10 little and big things you can do to address this problem.

Next, we heard from Jeff Aitken, Owner of Fluid Coffee Bar. He shared the core values of Fluid Coffee Bar and how they make decisions through a triple bottom line lens. If opportunities are not good for profit, planet, and people, they get creative about how they can partner with other folks to solve the problem or table the idea.

JD Prater from Alliance for Climate Education (ACE) gave an incredibly powerful, interactive presentation about climate change, including examples of ways that people all over the world are responding to this crisis. The big takeaway from JD’s presentation was to Do One Thing (DOT).

Adam Schlegel, the Co-Founder of Snooze A.M. Eatery, hosted an amazing lunch for us and told us more about how he and his brother launched their wildly popular breakfast joint. A big takeaway from Adam’s presentation was to start small and make environmental initiatives fun. Most restaurants do not recycle, so Snooze started small by starting a recycling program. Then they added composting and now divert close to 90% of their waste stream!

Finally, we wrapped up the day with John-Paul Maxfield, Founder of Waste Farmers. Waste Farmers is a next-generation, sustainable agricultural company focused on helping humanity meet current and future food demands while decreasing agriculture’s environmental footprint. Waste Farmers is an excellent example of a for-profit, socially conscious venture that is a true leader in the sustainable agriculture movement.

A special thanks goes out to Johnson & Wales and all of our dynamic speakers who volunteered their time to inspire us to continue to come up with creative solutions to our most pressing environmental problems.

2011 Base Camp Bash A Smashing Success

The final donations are still trickling in, but we are ready to declare the 2011 Base Camp Bash a smashing success.

Because of our generous supporters, we were able to raise just shy of $44,000 to help support our 2011 programs to connect diverse youth to the outdoors. This represents close to a 110% increase from what we raised from the Bash in 2010!

The money we raised this year will help support our high priority projects in 2011, including our partnerships with West Denver Prep, Community Adventure Program, Earth Task Force, and Operation: Military Kids.

If you weren’t able to attend, you missed a phenomenal party. Gallery 1261 set the perfect scene for a fun evening out on the town and the energy was kicked up a notch with rockin’ tunes from the Tommy Shreve Trio.

Fierce cravings were satisfied by Snooze, including breakfast burritos, grill cheese and tomato soup dip for dunking. But the pièce de résistance was the smores pancakes they brought out for dessert – yum!

Intense thirst was quenched by cold beer from Denver’s own Wynkoop Brewing Company and wine from Mondo Vino. And we can’t forget our new friends at Leopold Brothers who shared samples of their impeccable Colorado spirits.

If you weren’t able to attend the Bash this year or if you want to relive the evening, check out the slide show from the event by Clicking Here.

We could not have pulled this event off without support from 5280 Magazine, Exclusive Resorts,  CoBiz Financial, The Kenneth King Foundation, the Derby Financial Group, CASI, Mile Hi Specialty Foods, Scout Cleaning and Maintenance, St. Charles Capital, Whitewave Foods, and all of our patron level donors.

Till next year!

Top 5 Reasons To Come To The 2011 Base Camp Bash

We are a few days away from the sixth annual Base Camp Bash on Saturday, April 30th, 2011 to benefit the Cottonwood Institute and everyone is buzzing with excitement! If you don’t have your tickets yet, here are the Top 5 Reasons to come to the 2011 Base Camp Bash:

5. Amazing food from Snooze!

4. Colorado beer from Wynkoop Brewing Company, wine from Mondo Vino, and spirits from Leopold Bros.

3. An adventurous silent auction with fabulous trips, concert and event tickets, restaurant gift certificates and more. And don’t forget the pre-bidding has started, so to learn more Click Here.

2. A chance to network with the movers and shakers of Denver/Boulder.

1. Let’s not forget that we’re doing all of this to help connect kids to the outdoors!

Buy Your Tickets Today: We can only sell 200 tickets and when they are gone, they are gone, so don’t miss out! Get your tickets today by Clicking Here.

We are so grateful for our sponsors, including: 5280 Magazine, Exclusive Resorts, Snooze, CoBiz Financial, The Kenneth King Foundation, CASI, Mile Hi Specialty Foods, Scout Cleaning and Maintenance, St. Charles Capital, Whitewave Foods, and all of our patron level donors!