New campaign hopes to raise $25,000 to fund field trips for campers to the Tahoe East Shore Trail and Sand Harbor State Park

TAHOE CITY, Calif. (June 22, 2021) – The Tahoe Fund is partnering with Camp Wamp, a sleepaway camp for children with physical disabilities, to give campers a unique experience on the shores of Lake Tahoe in 2022. The Tahoe Fund is currently raising $25,000 to fund field trips for the campers to visit the Tahoe East Shore Trail and Sand Harbor State Park. The funds will cover the costs to transport the 20-25 campers and their camp counselors in each weekly session.

At Camp Wamp, outdoor summer camp experiences are provided to kids ages 10 to 18 that have physical disabilities. The kids learn about self-reliance and their own ambition. They push their limits. They sleep outdoors on the 129-acre property on cots under the stars. They hike. They fish on 9-acre Deer Lake. They climb a rock wall. They do arts, crafts and have competitions. Most importantly, they have fun.

“One of the best parts about the Tahoe East Shore Trail is that it was designed specifically to offer greater accessibility for people of all ages and abilities to some of the most stunning vista points of Lake Tahoe,” said Amy Berry, Tahoe Fund CEO. “Being on Donner Summit at the campsite is an amazing experience for these kids, but you can’t see Tahoe from there. Through these field trips we can give them the opportunity to experience the extraordinary beauty of the Lake from the new trail, and the iconic beaches of Sand Harbor.”

Started in 2002 by Stephen Wampler, Camp Wamp offers six one-week sessions every summer in July and August and has hosted over 1,250 kids over the years. Wampler, who grew up in Northern California and has used a wheelchair for mobility for his entire life due to cerebral palsy, knows first-hand the significance that camp experiences like this can have on kids with disabilities.

“We want the Tahoe community to know we’re here, and we’d like to welcome them to get involved with camp and what we’re doing at Donner Summit if they have interest. The kids who come to Camp Wamp have a variety of physical disabilities that range from mild all the way to using a wheelchair, and the experience truly is life-changing for them,” said Camp Wamp Founder Stephen Wampler.

Camp Wamp has a one-to-one camper to counselor ratio, with counselors typically consisting of college students who are working to earn their degrees in a variety of capacities — from recreation to therapy and nursing.

This summer, high school students who are part of the Tahoe Fund’s new Teens 4 Tahoe program will join with the Camp Wamp team to help make repairs and accessibility improvements to the property.

To support this wonderful project, click here.

Travelers are rewarded for their act of kindness in giving back to Take Care Tahoe with exclusive rates and perks from Kind Hotels on Kind Traveler

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (Oct. 23, 2019) — Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority (LTVA) launched a sustainable travel initiative with Kind Traveler, the first socially conscious Give + Get hotel booking and sustainable travel education platform that empowers travelers to make a positive community and environmental impact to the destinations they visit.

How It Works: A Triple Win
Travelers can now access exclusive rates (that result in a significant savings) with curated South Lake Tahoe hotels upon a $10 nightly donation to Take Care Tahoe, an initiative that’s a collective group of more than 30 organizations that love Lake Tahoe and want to see more people connect with its beautiful natural environment. One hundred percent of the donation goes to charity, creating a triple win amongst the hotel, charity, and traveler.

Why Now?
In a recent 2019 sustainable travel report by Booking, it was revealed that 71% of travelers think that travel companies should offer consumers more sustainable travel choices. On the other hand, almost half (46%) of global travelers acknowledge that they find it harder to make sustainable choices on while on vacation than in everyday life.

Responsible Travel: Take Care Tahoe
Take Care Tahoe is a tool for ecotourism seekers developed by a collective group of 30+ organizations that love Lake Tahoe and want to make it easier for people to find fun and interesting ways to learn more about Tahoe.

Working together, the group has launched the newly redesigned and easy-to-use www.takecaretahoe.org to provide a single information source for all environmental education activities. Beach cleanups, wildflower hikes, insightful discussions, and environmentally friendly festivals are just a few of the opportunities people can find on the new site.

“The Take Care Tahoe program is a great way to let our visitors know all the options to help take care of Tahoe,” said Amy Berry, Tahoe Fund CEO and Take Care Tahoe partner. “We are thrilled to partner with Kind Traveler and our local hotels to help spread awareness of Take Care.”

Sustainable South Lake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe is the second deepest lake in the U.S. and one of the clearest large Alpine lakes in the world. Although many of its watersheds and aquatic habitats were degraded as a result of past human activities, a partnership of federal, state, local agencies, private interests, scientists and the Washoe Tribe are collaborating to protect and improve the extraordinary natural and recreational resources of the Lake Tahoe Basin.

Over the past 20 years, partners have worked to treat 74,000 acres of land to reduce fire threats, restore lake clarity and 1,700 acres of wetlands, enhanced fish and wildlife habitat, and added 3,195 feet of public shoreline for recreation of Lake Tahoe.

What Does a $10 Donation Do?
Not only will a $10 nightly donation allow travelers to access exclusive rates and perks from Kind Hotels in South Lake Tahoe as a reward for their act of kindness, it will also help create a significant positive impact.

For example, a $10 donation to Take Care Tahoe will:

• Provide lunch for one trail building volunteer
• Provide three new Take Care Tahoe signs, with friendly and amusing reminders to visitors and residents to Take Care of Tahoe

“Beyond empowering and educating travelers on the exact type of positive impact they can make through their donation, it’s proven in the biology of kindness that by donating or volunteering, it’s possible to create a chemical shift in your brain, leading one to feel happier and healthier. This is the perfect storm for the traveler looking to have a more memorable, meaningful, and values-aligned vacation experience,” said Jessica Blotter, CEO & Co-Founder of Kind Traveler.

Participating Kind Hotels

Edgewood Tahoe:
As the first Kind Hotel to join the sustainable travel initiative in Lake Tahoe, Edgewood Tahoe, a LEED silver certified eco-luxury alpine lodge, is offering exclusive hotel rates and perks as reward for a $10 nightly donation to Take Care Tahoe, or a charity of choice, on Kind Traveler’s Give + Get hotel booking and education platform. In addition to exclusive hotel rates, perks include 20 percent off spa services, a daily $20 dining credit, a complimentary glass of wine or cocktail at check-in, a welcome amenity, and more.

Hard Rock Hotel Lake Tahoe:
One of the most widely recognized brands worldwide, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Lake Tahoe, has also joined initiative to empower travelers to support Take Care Tahoe. In addition to recently eliminating all plastic straws and transitioning to paper only to-go bags, Hard Rock will offer perks that include a $15 food & beverage credit, a $15 Free Play Voucher, and upon availability, a room upgrade and late check-in/check-out.

Future Kind Hotels:
The initiative plans to on-board additional Kind Hotels in Lake Tahoe in further engaging all stakeholders in the sustainable travel campaign.

Destination Stewardship Through Education
Take Care has created a fun and youthful campaign that shares the message of responsible travel through downloadable posts for travelers to easily share in furthering the message that is critical in keeping Lake Tahoe sustainable for generations to come. As an education platform, Kind Traveler will champion and amplify the Take Care Tahoe campaign through its blog, newsletters, and social media to further the message of responsible travel to Lake Tahoe.

For more information on how travelers can #TravelKindly to South Lake Tahoe, visit www.kindtraveler.com.

ABOUT TAKE CARE TAHOE
Take Care Tahoe is a collective group of more than 30 organizations that love Lake Tahoe and want to see more people connect with this beautiful natural environment. Through a regional collaboration, the team has created a clever and engaging stewardship campaign that reminds residents and visitors to take care of Tahoe. The newly launched www.takecaretahoe.org is a one-stop resource for all things related to environmental education events, volunteer opportunities and messages in the Tahoe Region, with information on more than 30 organizations and more than 200 events. Tahoe Fund is the fiscal sponsor of Take Care Tahoe.

ABOUT KIND TRAVELER
Kind Traveler, a public benefit corporation (PBC), is the first socially conscious ‘Give + Get’ hotel booking and sustainable travel education platform that empowers travelers to make a positive community or environmental impact to the destinations they visit. Travelers access exclusive rates and special perks to book directly with curated hotels upon a $10 nightly donation to a local charity that positively impacts the visiting destination, or to charity of choice on Kind Traveler. 100 percent of the donations raised on the Kind Traveler platform go directly to charities. Kind Traveler currently represents 100+ hotels and 60 charities in 15 countries. All charities are poised to address the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at KindTraveler.com.

New initiative will provide seed funding to public and private sector ideas for rapidly improving forest health in the Tahoe Basin

TAHOE CITY, Calif. (Aug. 20, 2019) – The Sierra Nevada forest is home to over 100 million dead trees, and in the Tahoe Basin, tree mortality has exploded to 160,000 in the past few years. At a dinner event attended last night by California and Nevada Governors Newsom and Sisolak, and Senators Cortez-Masto and Feinstein, the nonprofit Tahoe Fund launched the Smartest Forest Fund. Designed to use philanthropy to drive innovation through seed funding, the Smartest Forest Fund will invest seed funding in new ideas and pilot projects that will significantly increase the pace and scale of forest restoration, bolstering the great work already underway by the US Forest Service, California and Nevada.

“Many people believe it is not a matter of if, but when we will face a catastrophic wildfire in the Tahoe Basin,” said John Jones, Tahoe Fund Board Member who is leading the initiative. “We know the devastation that occurred with the Camp Fire in Paradise, California could happen here. For this reason, the Tahoe Fund has identified forest health as our number one priority.”

To get started, the Tahoe Fund announced it will support three projects:

• A $30,000 grant will be provided to the US Forest Service to develop an acoustic monitoring protocol and system to more effectively determine the value of habitat and the occurrence of the California spotted owl in project areas. Combined with automated recording device deployment, this will more efficiently detect individual owls and thereby shorten the existing process from two years to one year.
• A $35,000 grant will join the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s support of Salo Sciences and Planet’s efforts to build the California Forest Observatory, an interoperable, aggregated data platform that will support dynamic, real-time wildfire risk mapping. If successful, it could significantly reduce the time needed for forest restoration planning, and also support emergency operations.
• A $35,000 grant to support the efforts of the Nevada Division of Forestry will be provided to begin the process of re-starting the Carson City Biomass facility. Once restarted, the facility will create a new off-taker of excess timber less than 20 miles from the Tahoe Basin.

Although significant barriers to forest restoration planning and implementation exist today, the intent of the Smartest Forest Fund is to remove those barriers through technology and innovation. Projects supported by the Smartest Forest Fund will:

• Dramatically decrease the time it takes to plan and approve restoration work
• Use technology to enhance wildlife studies and harvesting plans
• Find new outlets for excess fuel in the forest
• Prepare the community for wildfire evacuation
• Find new financial tools to do more, quickly

“We know that some of the ideas and projects the Smarter Forest Fund supports will work, and some may not. Working together with our public agency partners, we believe there is an opportunity to harness the power of philanthropy and the private sector to help fix our forest,” continued Jones.

This fall, in partnership with Tahoe’s forest management agencies, the Tahoe Fund will launch a call for innovative project ideas that align with the goal of increasing the pace and scale of forest restoration. Public agencies and private sector organizations will be invited to submit their ideas for funding. Tahoe Fund will also provide opportunities to collaborate with the public agencies and an experimental forest in the Lake Tahoe Basin to test out the ideas that are brought forward.