On January, 9, 2013 Recreation Northwest was incorporated in the State of Washington. Here we look back on our first 3 years and reflect on the evolution of our mission, our dynamic event portfolio, and the leading edge programs that we launched in our early years. Celebrating our 13th Birthday – In the Beginning
Founded in 2013, Recreation Northwest (RN) is a non-profit 501(c) 3 charitable organization, based in Bellingham, WA. We began with the existing Bellingham Traverse in 2002, a community based multi-sport relay. This was our foundation to launch into doing more than just races. Our multi-sport events were developed with a focus on stewardship for the parks, trails and open space we utilize while getting people out to be active and have fun. We built our organization on the trust and strong relationships we had. We continue to be admired for our ability to think innovatively and get things done.
Before transitioning to a non-profit organization we spent the first year doing a community needs assessment and confirmed our niche of Stewardship of community open space and Education for Race Directors and advocacy of the impact of the Recreation Economy. Our event portfolio has expanded to include five multi-sport races statewide and two educational forums: a Race Director Summit and Recreation EXPO. Our recreational stewardship has expanded beyond our events and into direct programmatic work.
We value our sense of place, treasure the people, the parks and the trails that make this an award-winning community. We are honored to be in a position to bring those passions and the people together. We look forward to building an even stronger culture of stewardship and enjoyment of our outdoor places and using our experience in Bellingham.
See our Past Event Portfolio and History
