A Taste Of The Great Outdoors

Feb. 3 - KGO (KGO) -- These special volunteers are giving more than a thousand kids a year a taste of the great outdoors.

This is the first time nine-year-old Leslie Valtierra has ever been sledding. In fact, it's the first time she's even touched real snow.

ABC7's Leigh Glaser: "Does it feel like what you thought it was gonna feel like?"

Leslie: "Yes, but a little harder."

Leslie and 15 other Bay Area children are spending the weekend in the high sierra, thanks to volunteers from the Sierra Club.

During the week, Arika Larson sells insurance. Will Chi is a high-tech engineer. Jerry Roney is a videographer. But several weekends a year, they step out of their routine and head for the mountains with a pack of kids who wouldn't be here any other way.

This is the Inner City Outings Program, started in the early 1970's to give low income young people a chance to experience the outdoors.

Melissa DelaCruz, 7th grade: "I think it's very important to get kids up in the snow, to get a little fun and a little education at the same time."

Biologist Allison Chin has volunteered for 18 years.

Allison Chin, Sierra Club volunteer: "It exposes them to things they might otherwise not see. A lot of it is about teaching them that the outdoors is -- belongs to all of us. What we hope to do as sierra club members is plant the seed in future advocates who are really gonna help to save the planet."

In the winter, the trips focus on the snow. The kids stay at a lodge in Tahoe Donner area. But the rest of the year, there are other adventures.

Sarai Valtierra, 8th grade: "River rafting, kayaking, I've been camping. I've been to the hot springs."

On this trip, most of the children are from the Seven Trees School in San Jose.

Larry Volpe, teacher: "There was a girl riding up last night that just kept screaming out the window, I thought she was going to jump out the window... snow, I want snow."

The volunteers do constant fund raising to pay for the trips. They even supply the clothes kids need to keep warm.

The Inner City Outings Program keeps a storage shed full of supplies. And every trip, someone volunteers as equipment manager.

Phil Doppelt, Sierra Club volunteer: "I'm making sure we have the right sizes for the participants in the trip and making sure the equipment when the trip is over is properly dried, cleaned and then returned to the storage shed."

When you add in the preparation, this snow trip took a total of about 400 volunteer hours, shared by seven people.

Leigh Glaser: "How does it make you feel though knowing that you are giving someone an opportunity to see snow for the first time?"

Arika Larson: "You could make me cry right now. I am so fortunate and so blessed that this is my opportunity to give back."

So we salute the volunteers of the Sierra Club's Inner City Outings Program. If you'd like to volunteer or donate money, visit their Web site at www.sierraclub.org/ico/.

Written and produced by Jennifer Olney.

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