This past June, our Angeleno LIFT families enjoyed a beautiful Saturday morning hike and photo expedition at Franklin Canyon Park in the Santa Monica Mountains, in collaboration with the Wildwoods Foundation. Julie Woodruff, Program Coordinator for Wildwoods, organizes monthly Paseos for all of the organizations within Magnolia Place (the home of LIFT-Los Angeles).
LIFT-Los Angeles extended invitations to some of our most deeply committed members. And once they learned about the trip, they could hardly contain their excitement! All of our guests brought their children and a few even brought their spouses. Our families participated in outdoor activities that ranged from identifying animal calls, to scavenger hunts for different types of plant life and animal trail tracking. In addition, all families were given a camera at the beginning of the hike to record their own individual experiences. Many of our families had never been hiking before, which made this trip extra special.
A few of our members felt particularly moved by being outdoors with their families–away from technology. One member said, “It was refreshing to be out in nature because you don’t need Wi-Fi to connect with yourself or with your family. I’m really thankful to LIFT for bringing this special moment to my family.” One of our little LIFTers mentioned their favorite part of the trip was seeing ducks and turtles in the wild.
Our families were also treated to an outdoor picnic, and some of our parents lent a helping hand by preparing and serving food with LIFT staff.
This trip embodied LIFT’s conviction to fortifying personal well-being and building social connections amongst the families we serve. Enjoying the great outdoors with the people you love is what summer’s all about, and we’re happy to have helped make that a reality for our hardworking LIFT families.
A special thank you to Julie and Carol from Wildwoods Foundation for making this trip possible for our members, Tasha Nicole Terani, Founder and CEO of Every Child’s Dream Foundation, who provided plush backpacks and to Baby 2 Baby for providing hip sunglasses for our Little LIFTers.
To see more photos from this trip, visit our Paseo album on flickr.