CompletedWe Mean Business - Wilderness Inquiry celebrates its new home in Bloomington
We Mean Business - Wilderness Inquiry celebrates its new home in Bloomington
Date: Wednesday, May 7, 2025 at 7:36 PMActual: Wednesday, May 7, 2025 at 7:36 PM
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[0:17] - 3, 2, 1.
[0:20] Cut.
[0:21] (Crowd cheering)
[0:22] Wilderness Inquiry is a 47-year-old
nonprofit organization,
[0:25] and our mission is to
connect people of all ages,
[0:28] backgrounds, abilities, and
identities to the health
[0:31] and wellness benefits of the outdoors.
[0:33] Since 1978, when we were
first founded, started working
[0:36] with people experiencing
disability.
[0:38] Over time, about the last 20 years
[0:40] or so, we've also worked with
America's youth who have,
[0:43] for one reason or another,
experienced barriers
[0:45] to getting outdoors and
[0:47] and being connected to the natural world.
[0:49] - We offer multiple types of trips.
[0:50] We offer extended trips
where typically three
[0:53] or five day overnight trips
can even go up longer,
[0:56] up to 14 days.
[0:57] We also have our day and youth trips,
[0:58] which typically are one day
trips out on local waterways
[1:02] or at local schools.
[1:03] So, when participants book through us,
[1:05] we don't wanna add extra
financial burden on them.
[1:07] So we provide everything from
sleeping bags, sleeping pads,
[1:10] to boots, to coats, to gloves,
[1:12] anything anyone could possibly
need to explore the outdoors.
[1:15] We are very welcoming.
[1:16] We have staff from all different
backgrounds and abilities
[1:19] and identities who are there
[1:21] to support you throughout the
entire duration of your trip,
[1:23] even to get you out on your
first hiking trip all the way up
[1:26] to going on a five day
boundary water expedition trip.
[1:30] - I didn't know how to take my daughter
[1:33] with a disability into the wilderness.
[1:34] I was stumped. And so I called Greg Lais,
[1:38] who started this a long time ago,
[1:41] and a month later we went on a trip into
[1:44] the White Otter Wilderness in Ontario.
[1:47] And after that went on four more trips.
[1:51] - We are just thrilled to be
here in Bloomington, Minnesota.
[1:54] It is a community that is
[1:56] so robust in its multicultural vibe,
[1:59] which is just really wonderful
[2:00] for the audiences that we serve.
[2:02] It's also just a amazing
location that's really close
[2:05] to the airport, as well as hundreds
[2:07] of programming locations we
have throughout the whole Twin
[2:10] Cities metropolitan area.
[2:12] So this has just been many
years that we've been looking
[2:15] for a new home and headquarters
for Wilderness Inquiry.
[2:18] - Wilderness Inquiry really
has some very unique needs.
[2:21] When we were looking
for a space. Of course,
[2:23] we have office staff that do
all the behind the scenes work
[2:26] that help make these adventures possible.
[2:28] So we really needed
about 10,000 square feet
[2:31] of office space,
[2:32] but our operation also
requires an enormous
[2:35] amount of infrastructure.
[2:36] We have these big 20 foot canoes
[2:38] that we take whole classrooms
of students out in.
[2:41] We call 'em our floating classrooms.
[2:42] We really needed an outdoor
space …
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