Sandy Schenck

Sandy Schenck is the owner, founder and former executive director of Green River Preserve summer camp located on 3,000 acres in Cedar Mountain, NC. Born and raised in Greensboro, NC, he has spent most of his life living in the Carolinas and has an equal love and appreciation for the mountain and coastal regions of both NC and SC. Sandy’s family always had a strong connection with the Blue Ridge Mountains and particularly the community of Flat Rock, NC, where Sandy and wife, Missy, currently reside. Sandy decided to open GRP summer camp on his family’s land in Cedar Mountain in 1988, and in 2006 protected the property forever in its natural state by placing it under conservation easement. An economics major from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Sandy also holds an MBA from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. In addition to being stepfather to Missy Schenck’s four children, Sandy is also the proud father of two daughters of his own, Laurinda and Catherine. When asked, Sandy would describe himself as a “conservationist and a nontraditional educator.” Inspired by Richard Louv’s “Last Child In the Woods,” and having seen for years through camp that experiential education is the best way to connect children with the natural world, Sandy began brainstorming the ideas that would eventually develop into the Muddy Sneakers program. A founding member of the Muddy Sneakers board, Sandy continues to bring guiding insight to the development of the organization. In addition to a life committed to education and conservation, Sandy serves on a number of philanthropic boards and claims to be a “devoted practitioner of aquatic theology” (aka fly-fishing).