Group Spotlight: Inner City Outings

A passerby took this photograph of the outing taken by Avalon Continuation School. From left: Gina Awtry (principal of Avalon Continuation School) Rodrigo Hernandez, Eddie Banales, Jesus Heredia, Melody Anderson (ICO leader), and Juan Lopez

Los Angeles Inner City Outings (LA ICO) is preparing young people to create the future of the Sierra Club. That might sound a bit self-congratulatory coming from ICO members until you listen to what the young participants in ICO outings have to say.

Claudia Corona, for instance, is president of The Mean Green Machine club sponsored by teacher and ICO leader Andy Stephens at a Los Angeles charter school, CALS, a college prep school. Claudia recently participated in a hike to Eagle Rock in Topanga State Park. The trip was led by Andy and ICO leader Rob Seltzer. She explains, I know that my participation in ICO activities has had a lasting impact on my life. Being able to hike through places I couldn't normally go or witness sights that aren't skyscrapers and vehicles, but ocean views or ecosystems in the works has inspired me and caused a transformation I never thought possible. I want to be an environmental engineer because I want to keep places like these beautiful, and I want to bring richness back to other once-natural places such as the Los Angeles River.

Ashlee Morales, another student at CALS, comments, I know that the Sierra Club is a great club that supports our Mean Green Team club, and, without Sierra Club, it would be very hard to go on the trips that we do. One of my favorite ICO trips was to Yosemite. To have the chance to go was just amazing! I got to go on hikes and see beautiful waterfalls. I also got to help the Yosemite environment by cleaning out the non-native plants, which was a blast. This trip involved a lot of teamwork and was a great way to bond with classmates.

Eddie Banales, Jesus Heredia, and Juan Lopez, students at Avalon Continuation School in Wilmington, recently went on their first backpack with the principal of their school, Gina Awtry, a Sierra Club member, and ICO leaders Melody Anderson and Andy Stephens. Now all three youngsters agree they want to do a backpack on their own.

Juan explains, The backpack was fun and challenging. It tested my endurance.

Eddie adds, It was better than I expected. I expected it to be boring. There are a lot of things I want to do with my life, and one of them is to hike again.

Jesus, thinking even further into the future, says, I will want to take my own kids hiking. I'll want to show them positive things and give them an idea what's out there.

Since 1983, the LA ICO program has provided instructive, year-round nature experiences such as those described above for urban youth, kindergarten through high school, from diverse ethnic backgrounds. In 2008, LA ICO celebrated its 25th anniversary and received the Angeles Chapter Citation of Merit.

LA ICO now works with 54 agencies, most of which are inner city schools serving low-income families. We have 35 active leaders who have been trained by Angeles Chapter and are ICO certified. During the 2007-2008 school year, these agencies went on 116 outings conducted by ICO. Core outings are four- to five-mile day hikes, offered two to three times a week in the Santa Monica Mountains. Typically, 25 to 30 children take part in each hike; they are accompanied by teachers and agency personnel. Parents and siblings are welcome. In addition to the day hikes, LA ICO sponsors overnight camping trips, snow trips, nature photography outings, visits to coastal lagoons and tide pools, and service projects.

The LA ICO program of the Sierra Club plans to continue introducing low-income, inner city youth and their families to the beauty of wild places. Our goal is to maintain-or increase-the number of outings, while adding depth to our program through longer excursions and more varied destinations.

Demand for our trips exceeds our resources. Transportation is by far our biggest expense. We need more funds to pay for outings and more volunteers to lead them.