Words and photos generously provided by Wild Outfits – Gathering Skills & Gear organizer, Kristin Andersen
As a single Mom & a youth worker, I noticed a community need for giving youth safe, inclusive, and accessible outdoor programming all year round. Through this process, I realized that it is not just youth who face various barriers to getting outside.
Together with my youth worker co-workers & friends, we started Wild Outfits. Our goal is to address a lack of connection, capacity, resources, mental/physical health, cultural awareness, environmental education & too much waste!
Collaborating with local towns & organizations we put together a series of outdoors skill building/gear gathering events in 3 towns, over 1 weekend. The events were fully inclusive, accessible, and open to all ages & abilities. Taking place in Edgewater, at Valley Appreciation Days in Invermere, and Canal Flats. We really appreciate the local support and donations from each town, Palliser Printing & Signs (posters, cards, etc), Jay Whitlow & Sierra Franklin (graphic design), Wildsight Invermere (donations/promotion), Canadian Tire (tarps, paracord, tent pegs & nalgenes for door prizes), Rona (wood for demos), Invermere Events (Valley Appreciation Day), KORE Outdoors ReHub (gear repair/promotion) & all of the people/businesses who helped to promote us.
The funding from Columbia Valley Community Foundation & Neighbourhood Small Grants combined with the outdoor education and donations from Adventures Free You Outdoor Guides & WildSafe BC made all of this possible.
Through wildlife & outdoor safety, knot-tying & shelter building activities, we experienced listening, learning, sharing & laughter. We planted seeds in people to grow curiosity, community connections, knowledge, personal abilities, & leadership. As well as a shift in mindset and motivation toward more environmentally sustainable outdoor adventures.
Highlights included watching a parent open up to their child about their own childhood experiences outdoors and how impactful they were. They picked up a piece of paracord and demonstrated a favorite knot to everyone standing around them and talked about how and why they use it.
In conversation, community members opened up about a different perspective that hadn’t thought of: sharing what we already have in our garages to lessen our environmental footprint while simultaneously supporting others. This spawned a conversation about what else they might be able to share (ie: lawn mowers)!
A group of 5 youth hiked a local mountain this summer. Over half of them borrowed boots and day packs from Wild Outfits. Apparently, none of them had ever seen views like that in the Columbia Valley, or had ever hiked that high! Two youth borrowed packs, boots and coats for a long backpacking trip this summer. A College of the Rockies student from Nigeria hadn’t travelled outside of Invermere due to lack of transportation, knowledge & gear. We were able to supply her with boots and Adventures Free You took her on a local adventure to see the wetlands and a waterfall. She could not stop saying thank you. We’ve had multiple other lending inquiries & opportunities over the last year.
Thank you everyone for your support and donations to Wild Outfits! We’ve collected quite a bit of gear to start, but still need more to make it a functioning library. We are currently aligning with local organizations for the best fit for the library.
To donate, please email wildoutfits.ca@gmail.com. Although we are on Facebook (Wild Outfits) & Instagram (@wildoutfits.ca), we prefer to limit our time on screens. Sending a quick email is best. 🙂
Wild Outfits- Gathering Skills and Gear was funded by the Neighbourhood Small Grants program in 2025.
