O.A.R.S. Celebrates 100 Years of America’s National Parks With Adventure, Giving Back
Angels Camp, CA — In 2016, O.A.R.S. joins all Americans in celebrating 100 years of our National Park Service, keepers of a proud tradition that safeguards some of our country’s most extraordinary and inspirational places—protected and open for the enjoyment of all—which serves as a model for the rest of the world.
Since 1969, when company founder George Wendt established O.A.R.S. as the first exclusively oar-powered rafting outfitter authorized to run trips in the Grand Canyon, the family-owned company has worked directly with the National Park Service to share the grandest canyon on Earth with tens of thousands of visitors. Since then, O.A.R.S. has expanded to operate in eight national parks, including Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, Crater Lake National Park, Dinosaur National Monument, Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park and Grand Canyon National Park.
O.A.R.S. believes that America’s national parks provide transformative, life-changing experiences that everyone deserves to have, which is why O.A.R.S. has teamed up with the National Park Foundation in support of their mission to protect America’s treasured places, connect all people with parks, and inspire the next generation of park stewards. As part of a 3-year agreement, O.A.R.S. is donating one percent of company sales from most of its national park tours to the National Park Foundation for a minimum of $50,000 through the end of 2016.
Additionally, O.A.R.S. has committed to an in-kind donation of $95,000 in national park trips to be used in support of National Park Foundation programs, like Open OutDoors for Kids, to help get underserved youth into parks. This year, the company will take a group of Native American youth on a six-day rafting trip on the Colorado River through Canyonlands National Park and the outfitter has partnered with Grand Teton National Park to get multiple groups of Latino youth out on three-day sea kayaking trips on Jackson Lake.
O.A.R.S. hopes everyone will have a chance to share the wonder of our National Parks and other public lands this year with someone they love, so starting this month, the company will also be giving away a trip for two each month to one of four national parks, including trips in Canyonlands, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Grand Teton, and Yosemite National Parks. The sweepstakes runs for six months leading up to the National Park Centennial on August 25th, 2016. Visit www.oars.com/sharethewonder for complete details.
In a short video, released this week, O.A.R.S. highlights the words of President Theodore Roosevelt: “There can be nothing in the world more beautiful than the Yosemite, the groves of the giant sequoias and redwoods, the Canyon of the Colorado, the Canyon of the Yellowstone, the Three Tetons; and our people should see to it that they are preserved for their children and their children's children forever, with their majestic beauty all unmarred."
Watch the video here.
Learn more and plan your own adventure to share the wonder of America’s National Parks with someone you love.
O.A.R.S. is an authorized concessioner of Arches, Canyonlands, Grand Canyon and Grand Teton National Parks, an authorized concessioner in Dinosaur National Monument and operates by special permit in Crater Lake, Yosemite and Yellowstone National Parks.