Voyageur Outward Bound: For the Love of the Home Team

Dear Partners and Friends,

This February, we celebrate Voyageur Outward Bound School impact with a heartfelt social campaign #LOVEVOBS. Each post begins with a declaration of love: " For the love of COMPASSION," "For the love of...GIRL POWER," "For the love of...EMPATHY" You get the picture. Kinda goofy, but quite sincere.

You see, we've always "carried a torch" for personal and youth development. We've always had a "burning love" for equity in education, but these days, all joking aside, we feel compelled to speak up for the right to healthy communities and what we feel are basic and common civic values: compassion, integrity, excellence and inclusion.

We know that the best way to build healthy communities and to care for and improve this world we share is to lead with our hearts and live our mission, even in the face of rhetoric and action that runs counter to the values we seek to embody.

This February--the month of love--we remember and elevate a sentiment that our own Senator Wellstone so simply articulated: "We all do better when we all do better." So thank you for carrying your mission with passion and nurturing our community relationships through collaboration. Former Minneapolis mayor, RT Ryback asserts that, "The Twin Cities have the greatest civic structure in the United States of America." I'm inclined to believe him; your work is living proof of a vibrant, dynamic, diverse and compassionate ecosystem of public work.

I recently spent a morning with high school students enrolled in a cross-district initiative, Minnesota Center for Advanced Professional Studies. As one student reflected on the correlations between her projected-based adventure in school and her Urban Adventure with VOBS, I heard Wellstone, and all of you in her words:

"My greatest takeaway is that we're better together. Everybody has different strengths and as a team, we get the job done. Everyone has a role to play."