Muddy Sneakers receives grant award from CAN’d Aid Foundation

The Oskar Blues CAN’d Aid Foundation’s ‘Treads & Trails’ program recently awarded a grant of $4,500 to Muddy Sneakers.

The grant will assist with the organization’s recent work in partnering with Brevard Academy’s new campus in Pisgah Forest and Vance Elementary’s redesign in Asheville.

“While schoolyard spaces are areas where Muddy Sneakers has become increasingly comfortable programming, the organization realizes that many teachers do not share in that feeling, have not previously received training in outdoor experiential learning and/or do not have outdoor spaces they feel can accommodate productive learning environments,” explained Ryan Olson, Executive Director for Muddy Sneakers. “When a few of our partnering schools began to explore ways in which to build or redesign their outdoor spaces to better accommodate such learning, and in turn directly benefit Muddy Sneakers’ ongoing use of those sites, we felt it made sense to respond to their request in providing support,” said Olson.
Muddy Sneakers foresees great partner collaboration in order to pull together the Brevard Academy project with landscape company 35 Degrees North, environmental education group Mountain Roots, nearby horticulturists New Leaf Garden Market, and Toxaway-based Southern Highlands Reserve already identified as collaborators alongside Brevard Academy’s administration.

In Asheville, Muddy Sneakers will be partnering with Roots Hummus and the recently formed Roots Foundation as they prioritize schoolyard redesign projects in the greater Asheville area beginning with Vance Elementary. “In the case of Vance Elementary, we see ourselves playing a support role to the great permaculture work the Roots Foundation is already doing. We hope to help build comfort within the school’s teacher community through periodic teacher trainings throughout the school year. Muddy Sneakers recognizes a need to better provide pre- and post-expedition support to teachers and students through materials/activities that can be utilized on the school campus. The partnership with Roots and Vance will allow us to further explore teacher training as a component of the eventual introduction of those materials next school year and it is our hope to provide concurrent support to all partnering schools.

We are learning a lot through both of these partnership efforts and while in some ways in represents a new hat for the organization, we see it as a clear extension of the core educational services we are already providing. We cannot thank the CAN’d Aid Foundation enough for providing support towards helping Muddy Sneakers expand its impact,” said Olson.