SAM GREGORY, FOUNDER / ORGANIZER / LEADER

As a young boy I always dreamed of having a simple cabin in the wilderness. That dream stayed with me into adulthood. In the mid 70s I travelled west on my bicycle, fell in love with the mountains, and developed a deep appreciation for the healing that comes with physical exercise and immersion in nature.

My dream stayed in the back of my mind, even as I began the grind of practicing as a criminal defense attorney in Brooklyn, NY. I was handling very serious cases, defending individuals who had committed very serious crimes. Quite often, it struck me that many of my clients were actually good people who had started out life with very few advantages, and had fallen in with the wrong crowd at a young age. Once they were in the judicial system, it was very hard for them to find another path. Where might many of my clients’ lives have led them if they had had more opportunities when they were young?

In 1996, I traveled to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in Alaska. By pure luck I discovered the most wonderful cabin in the most beautiful place in the entire world- the perfect place to spend summer vacations. I was single at the time. I met a woman who was working for the National Park Service. We fell in love, got married and have three children now. Living and working in Brooklyn, it kept bothering me that so many kids in our community never had a chance to go see the world and experience swimming in a lake or hiking on a mountain. I became fixated on trying to help young kids experience the inspiration and healing power of nature that I was so lucky to have experienced. I hoped that these experiences could help kids get on a better track in life and reach their potentials.

For at least five years I tried to partner with various organizations to start a Brooklyn to Alaska trip, but for various reasons was unable to get it going. My neighbor, an elderly gentleman named Jack Gorelick, was listening to me complain about nobody following through to help me start this program. Finally, Jack said "Why don't you stop complaining and do it yourself?"  So that first year I lined up five kids before I did anything else, because I knew that if I promised them that I would take them to Alaska on a trip it would force me to do the necessary work to raise the money and start this program. That was in 2008. We had a great trip. Since then, the program has grown and become bigger and better with every succeeding year.