Before we dive into “new decade, new goals”, we wanted to take a minute to reflect and celebrate a few of the things our amazing community accomplished in 2019.
From Springfield, Missouri to Cleveland, Ohio, 2019 was a year of bringing people together (over 2,000 in-person!), learning skills, giving back and, of course, going outside.
Celebrating: Three New Chapters
2019 saw a geographic expansion of Mappy Hour from a new Ozarks Chapter in Northwest Arkansas led by Heather Smith to Chicago – thanks to Erica Zazo – and finally, in November, to Seattle launched by Lindsay Parker.
It also is important to shout out the rest of our community – all of you who helped spread the message and recruit your friends in these cities. We wouldn’t have seen these launch successes without all of you!
HUB-ba HUB-ba
Over on the MappyHour.org Community Hub, membership spiked over 50% and we now count our hub members at 5,610 people strong!
Organizations can now create their own profiles and individual members can “upvote” your favorites!
In December we also put together a lil community shop featuring vendors from different chapters. If you want to be included, just shoot us an email at mappyhour@outdoorfest.com.
Teamwork Makes the Dreamwork
In 2019, we also welcomed our first ever global sponsor: the North Face (you may have heard of them!?). They have been helping Mappy Hour grow in a ton of different ways including; bringing their amazing athletes to Mappy events, hosting us at their stores and supporting the brand new Explore More Challenge to get more people outdoors!
Tips on the Best Places to Get Outdoors
The Explore More Challenge is not just a fun way to win prizes – it’s also a way to find local adventures you can do close to home.
If you’re in NYC, Cleveland, Denver, or Chicago click those links to get ideas on where to run, bike, ski and surf near your city.
2020: What to Expect from Mappy Hour
- More of the same! Your awesome chapter leaders have ideas and events in the works for a stellar year of learning and adventure.
- There’s a great piece on Mappy Hour coming out in Sisu Magazine this month. Check them out.
- We have more great collaborations with The North Face in the pipeline. Seattle and D.C. specifically will see the Explore More Challenge drop in your cities in the next month!
- We’re cooking up new ways to connect. Hint: not 2vodka or 3whiskey but ________.
- New Chapters – we can’t spill the beans just yet but West Coast… brace yourself.
- More videos! (What, what videos? These videos.)
- You tell us.
And with that we say a wholehearted THANK YOU to every individual and organization that has contributed to building and growing this community over the past year. We can’t wait for 2020 and beyond!
