From our 2022 Annual Report. Learn more about ways to support Wilderness Workshop by reaching out to Philanthropy Director Emily Kay.
We sat down with Chelsea – a donor for nearly 20 years and a co-host of our annual benefit, Wild Feast – to learn more about why she so passionately supports our work.
Chelsea Congdon
Tell us about your connection to Wilderness Workshop.
I grew up in the Roaring Fork Valley and it’s where I learned to read topo maps, get lost and found, feel at home, and be in love with wild places. In the early 2000s, James Brundige and I were invited to make a film about WW – Wild for Good – and we fell in love with Dottie, Connie, and Joy, the founders of the Workshop. We had a wonderful time learning how they got started and the Workshop’s legacy since the 1960s.
Why is protected wilderness, water, and wildlife on public lands important to you?
I think about the web of life and how we are not separate or superior to nature – we are a part of it and we intimately depend on it for our well-being. The challenge of protecting wild places is a test of whether we can see beyond our momentary indulgences to preserve life for all of our kin on this planet, not just ourselves.
What sets Wilderness Workshop apart?
The Workshop is an effective organization because it is so connected with love of a place – and that love is the glue for our community. This enables the organization to do great advocacy, legal, and policy work; to be strategic partners with other organizations; and to engage the Latinx community, ensuring that love of place is a feeling everyone has.
Why should folks attend Wild Feast?
Wild Feast is the time to celebrate that love of place I mentioned before – it is the BEST fundraising event in the valley – filled with fun, energetic, passionate people united by their love of this place and all that is magical about it!
