Dear Eagle’s Nest Family,

Joining a community like Eagle’s Nest is like joining a contra dance mid-step where everyone knows the steps and the music, the special whoops and claps along the way. As everyone who has spent time here at 43 Hart Road knows, the nature of experiential education is to be immersed while simultaneously being well supported and integrated. This is the impact we make on our participants and students every day. And, as it turns out, this is how a new executive director is welcomed, too. I absolutely loved starting this work with the last session of camp, being assigned to a table family, supporting classes, and enjoying the young people at the center of everything we do! Later that first month, I found myself trying to stay warm on Black Balsam while being initiated into The Outdoor Academy through faculty orientation (for its 30th year!), eating fresh sourdough, and sinking deep into the cornerstones and principles of OA.

A few short weeks later, Noni Waite-Kucera and I stood on the front porch of Cabin Tree Tops looking down at a sea of large oak and pine trees downed by Hurricane Helene. It was day 60 for me, and the last official full-time day on campus for Noni. We wiped tears of gratitude from our cheeks, solemnly recognizing how very fortunate our staff, Semester 59 students, and our campus had been. In that moment of gratitude and gravity, Noni reflected on the legacy of our land and how it felt as if we were protected from more significant damages in light of the regional devastation.

I think about the lasting impact of Noni’s legacy of leadership, and how each person in the Eagle’s Nest community is forever part of its legacy, mission, and sense of place. I invite you to join me in supporting Eagle’s Nest and The Outdoor Academy by making a gift by December 31st, 2024.

Just like the seasons change, or trees fall and water rises in a storm, people may come and go. Our strong mission, values, cornerstones, and principles are our constants and are core to the transformative experiences shared at 43 Hart Road. I am so grateful to be at Eagle’s Nest, leaning into the legacies of those before me and home again in the region that surrounds Pisgah Forest. While there is much to be done on the path to recovery from Helene, we are all in this together, and our community will be stronger for it. My promise to you will be to continue to tend our programs, people, and this place, inch by inch.

Together we will make this garden grow.
Thank you for your continued support.

Beth,
Executive Director