Our mission is to teach the health benefits of nature, promote outdoor recreation, and steward the places where we play.
We are Opting OUTside* and hope you follow our path.
We are pushing the pause button on engagement with our social media channels to #GTFO and play. To see what we’re up to read our blog: The Confluence.
For many years, we have leveraged the power of social media channels to engage with our customers and as a means to reach beyond our traditional audiences in our hometown of Bellingham, WA. Since our inception, our geographic scope of interest was tied to our localized events and regional programming. This anchored us in other cities around Washington including Olympia, Seattle, Winthrop, North Bend, and other enclaves across the state. As early adopters of these powerful channels of communication, we have a treasure trove of memories to scroll through and enjoy on Recreation Northwest’s Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube channels.
It’s fun to reminisce about the good ‘ol days- in the pre-pandemic times when we hosted community events and needed to push our messages out to the masses. As we evolved through the pandemic, we have chosen to turtle back into our home base of Bellingham and surrounding Whatcom County. Recreation Northwest’s Strategic Plan 2023 and mission has evolved since we first started using social media to cast a broader net across the state and region- especially with dedicated tourism funding for paid out-of-area targeted advertising.
Our current program plans are hyper-focusing our efforts on our two main goals:
1. Outdoor Classroom pilot project
2. Parkscriptions programs in local public schools
We have a small CREW with dedicated Board of Directors supporting our work. Our priorities are in dedicating energy to our local projects and programs. While we pause on these digital platforms we hope this gives you encouragement to go OUTside and play.
*Opt Outside – Originally created by REI by closing their “doors on Black Friday, choosing time outside over the busiest in-store shopping day of the year.”
Yours Outdoors,
Todd Elsworth
ps- In case you were wondering #GTFO = Get the Family Outside!
Todd Elsworth is one of the many “Mossy-haired lunatics roaming the dripping peninsulas”, described in “I’m Here for the Weather” by Tom Robbins. As executive director, he works to fulfill our mission to teach the health benefits of nature, promote outdoor recreation, and steward the places where we play.
