Detroit collaborative builds future leaders by introducing kids to hiking and camping

This story is part of Equity in Our Parks, a series highlighting the people and organizations advancing equity through Southeast Michigan’s parks and related programming. It is supported by Oakland County Parks and Recreation, Wayne County Parks and Recreation, Huron-Clinton Metroparks, City of Detroit, and Detroit Riverfront Conservancy. 

When Eastpointe resident Rachel Felder was a rising high school senior, her first camping trip changed her life. Through an internship at the Belle Isle Nature Center, Felder discovered Detroit Outdoors, a network of institutions focused on expanding access to outdoor recreation. She joined one of Detroit Outdoors' regular camping trips at Scout Hollow campground in Rouge Park, which she now describes as an "eye-opening experience" that inspired her to go camping 20 times the following summer.

"I just remember it being very quiet and peaceful and feeling this sense of calm, which I didn't necessarily expect," she says. "I think, with all the anxiety and nerves around the trip, I didn't necessarily anticipate to feel such a sense of calm in the night."

Now, Felder has come full circle, helping others to explore outdoor activities for the first time. As a naturalist in the Detroit Parks and Recreation Department, she's one of several outdoor enthusiasts who lead Detroit Outdoors programming.
Detroit OutdoorsRachel Felder.
"I could have never imagined that I would be saying that I was an outdoor leader," Felder says. "It's not something that I anticipated or planned to do, but it is something that I've really fallen in love with."

Breaking down barriers to the outdoors

Felder is just one of many Southeast Michiganders whose lives have been touched by Detroit Outdoors' mission of equity in outdoor adventures since the collaborative's inception in 2017. Detroit Outdoors was founded by the Sierra Club, the Detroit Parks and Recreation Department, and the YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit. Garrett Dempsey, the Sierra Club's lead staffer for Detroit Outdoors, says representatives of the three organizations had had conversations for several years prior about how they could better connect the Detroit youth they served to outdoor recreation. An early focal point of those conversations was how to help Detroit youth experience overnight camping close to home. Dempsey says many barriers can come into play for Detroiters, even with parks in their own neighborhoods.

"Sometimes a young person might not feel, or their family might not feel, that they have safe access to that park, or they are unfamiliar with what goes on in that park and the things that you can do in that park," he says. "And so there is a combination of real and perceived sort of barriers that might just keep someone from feeling a connection to a particular green space."
Detroit OutdoorsGarrett Dempsey.
One major barrier was that Scout Hollow, the city's only campground, had been "left unattended and unactivated," in Dempsey's words, for many years before Detroit Outdoors started. 

"Nature was in charge down there," he says.

The collaborative's first major task was cleaning up Scout Hollow, which is located in Rouge Park, to make it ready for campers to return. That meant cutting grass that Dempsey says was "as tall as an adult," clearing some underbrush, and fixing potholes on the campground's access road. Detroit Outdoors also established a camping gear "library" on the site, offering tents, sleeping bags, and other equipment for camping groups to borrow.
Garrett DempseyCamping gear staged for a youth campout in Scout Hollow.
In addition to improving physical camping infrastructure in the city, Detroit Outdoors trained local youth group leaders on how to organize and lead a camping trip. Dempsey says that for children, a lack of outdoor-savvy adults can be another barrier to enjoying camping and other outdoor activities.

"Even though that person you know may be great working with kids, they might see in their mind this really big sort of step to take that sort of relationship and that leadership into leading a camping outing," he says.

Felder says some of those barriers presented themselves in her young life. She recalls going to Belle Isle while she was growing up, but never camping.

"It just wasn't necessarily normalized," she says. "My family didn't do those things. My friends didn't do those things, so I didn't necessarily know that they were things that I could do. They weren't accessible to me in that way."

Now, Detroit Outdoors has facilitated 35 camping trips at Scout Hollow and trained 90 adults to lead camping trips. Prices for Detroit Outdoors programming varies, but accessibility is prioritized for all programs. Some are free, while others are offered on a pay-what-you-can or sliding-scale basis. Dempsey says the collaborative's work embodies the values of the Sierra Club's Outdoors for All campaign, which he works for.
Jac KyleA camper looks across Detroit Outdoors tents set up in Scout Hollow Campground in Rouge Park.
"We really do believe that there's a place for everyone in the outdoors, and so we're going to work really hard with partners and with funders to try and make sure that that kind of experience can be accessible for every kid in Detroit," he says.

Outdoor adventure, from Detroit schools to other states

Detroit Outdoors' work has expanded far beyond Scout Hollow in recent years. The collaborative has begun offering young people outdoor adventures far beyond the Metro Detroit area through the YMCA's Bold and Gold program, an outdoor leadership development initiative.
Garrett DempseyA YMCA Bold and Gold crew ready to load up for a backpacking adventure.
This summer's Bold and Gold trips have included South Manitou Island, the Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania, and Pictured Rocks in Munising, Mich. Detroit Outdoors staffer Isaac Piepszowski regularly leads Bold and Gold trips for the collaborative.

"Youth that have not ever really gone backpacking or camping really develop some comfortability in the outdoors, in the backcountry," he says. "And then, not only that, but they develop some leadership and reflect and share their experience within the trip and then after the trip."
Detroit OutdoorsIsaac Piepszwoski.
Alana Murrie, a 17-year-old Detroit resident and Renaissance High School student, went to Pictured Rocks for her first trip with Detroit Outdoors. She describes it as "one of the best trips [she's] ever been on."

"I think that trip really changed my mindset, because after I went on that trip, I was like, 'I have to go on another camping trip,'" she says. "It was just wonderful."
Detroit OutdoorsAlana Murrie, Jared Roblero-Morales, Mads Martinez, Adrian Gutierrez, and Naja Flemings on a Detroit Outdoors trip to the Boundary Waters region in Ontario.
Over the past two years, Detroit Outdoors has also been working to cultivate more outdoor enthusiasm within Detroit-area schools. Piepszowski heads up efforts to start Outdoor Adventure Clubs – student organizations that plan a variety of outdoor activities ranging from rock climbing to cycling to skiing. Piepszowski says he's working with eight to nine schools right now, and three to four of them now have established clubs. He says his overall goal is to build enough momentum among teachers and students that the clubs become self-sustaining.

"We've really tried to put the ball in the students' court," Piepszowski says. "I've been frequently visiting schools and asking kids what they want to dream up. Like, what would you want to do as a club? What are some things you are interested in? And we really just try as best we can, with our resources and our relationships and our connections in the city, to make some of those things possible."

Building leaders

Detroit OutdoorsStudent Mads Martinez joins Detroit Outdoors instructor Isaac Piepszowski on a sunset paddle in the Boundary Waters region of Ontario.The overall goal of all Detroit Outdoors programming is developing future leaders – like Felder – through outdoor recreation.

"If we can get one foot in the door and [give a young person] one meaningful experience, it's really a domino effect," Piepszowski says. "After ...  feeling comfortable and maybe pushing themselves beyond their limits, it really just opens the door to, 'Well, hey, if I can do that, I can probably do this and this and this.'"

Piepszowski says the most exciting part of his work is when he sees students feel "comfortable and powerful" enough to start recruiting their friends for outdoor adventures and planning activities themselves.

"It's really about leading into pathways of a healthier lifestyle of connection with nature and getting to know yourself in a different lens, maybe outside of a city," he says. "It just opens up the experience of life so much more. And so we are fully committed to empowering youth and families and anyone that wants to feel known and welcome in the outdoor spaces."

Murrie says she's become much more involved in environmental advocacy since taking several Detroit Outdoors trips. She's helped with Earth Day and school clean-up events, joined outdoor volunteer programs, and written speeches about protecting the environment. Autumn Herring, a 16-year-old Southfield resident and Renaissance High student, has been similarly inspired since participating in Detroit Outdoors programming. She says she's found herself wandering around in nature and appreciating plants more, as well as getting involved in her school's Green Team, which focuses on environmental advocacy. She says she hopes to become a professional "advocate ... for nature or climate."

"I want to see how I can ... investigate plants for my future career," Herring says. "I kind of want to do ecology, or become an ecologist. Being outdoors kind of motivates that, and being in Detroit Outdoors really motivated that more."
Detroit OutdoorsDetroit Outdoors staffer Jac Kyle with students Naja Flemings, Mads Martinez, Adrian Gutierrez, and Alana Murrie on a Detroit Outdoors trip to Brule Lake in Minnesota.
Felder says Detroit Outdoors' central message is that "the outdoors is really and truly for everyone." She says she hopes the collaborative is "shifting the narrative of what it means to be outside" and "who is qualified" to be outdoors.

"The outdoors does not discriminate or judge," she says. "It does not matter what you look like, what you identify as, none of that. It's truly a place that just exists for people to enjoy and for people to respect and to treat with care and kindness."

Patrick Dunn is the lead writer for the Equity in Our Parks series. He's also the managing editor of Concentrate and an Ypsilanti-based freelance writer and editor.

Garrett Dempsey, Rachel Felder, and Isaac Piepszowski photos courtesy of Detroit Outdoors.