Mountain Whitewater Descents (MWD) believes that a healthy community is fostered through community involvement and the general philanthropy of every individual within that community. In 2007, MWD made charitable donations of whitewater rafting trips to many organizations and individuals locally, nationally and internationally.

Mountain Whitewater Descents

gives greater than 2%

of gross receipts to non-profit organizations each year

 

The in-kind donations for 2007 are as follows:

  • Two Plunge rafting trips to Fort Collins Preschool Springfest Fundraiser. Fort Collins Preschool is a non-profit, cooperative preschool, which provides families with an affordable preschool option.
  • Two Plunge rafting trips to Operation Frontline ColoradoÂ’s annual fund raising event. Operation Frontline is a non-profit nutrition education program whose mission is to end childhood hunger in Colorado.
  • Two Plunge rafting trips to The Pillars of the Community Gala, an annual fund raiser for the Arapahoe House. The Arapahoe House provides a number of treatment programs for individuals and families impacted by drug and alcohol dependency.
  • Eight Plunge rafting trips to Sam School.
  • Two Plunge rafting trips to the Berthoud High School After Prom event, which is designed to give students a substance free after prom alternative.
  • Four Plunge rafting trips to Riverboat the Rockies, an annual fundraiser for Trees, Water, People (TWP). TWP implements programs designed to benefit the natural areas around Fort Collins, such as planting trees, improving wetlands and introducing renewable energy options to the community.
  • Two Plunge rafting trips to Larimer County Parks & Open Lands' annual fund raining auction to benefit open spaces in the Fort Collins area.
  • Two Plunge rafting trips to Poudre Past Midnight, another substance free after prom option for students of Poudre High School.
  • Two Plunge rafting trips to the Boys and Girls Club of Larimer County. The Boys & Girls Club implements programs less fortunate children in Larimer County.
  • Two Plunge rafting trips to Fossil Ridge High School senior capstone project that is raising money to sponsor 150 children in an orphanage in Kenya.
  • Sixteen Plunge rafting trips to the Turing Point Center for Family Development. MWD donates trips to both the troubled youth within the organization as well as to the staff for a staff appreciation event.
  • Two Plunge rafting trips to benefit Poudre Elementary School through their annual fund raising efforts.
  • Two Plunge rafting trips to the Colorado State University Green and Gold Gala. The Green and Gold Gala raises money to create more scholarship opportunities for students.
  • Two Plunge rafting trips to the Lutheran Family Services of Colorado in order to raise money to help child abuse prevention programs in Colorado.
  • Sixteen Plunge raft trips to Urban Peak.  They are a homeless youth shelter in Denver.

Do you have an organization that we should help out? 

email us now!

 

Volunteering

While giving money and raft trips is rewarding, we are also proud of our volunteering of time.  Since 1993, Brad Modesitt has spent hundreds of hours cleaning our waterways and land.  He is more proud of the more than a hundred volunteers that he has corraled into helping.

This year we are continuing our River Cleanup efforts on May 31 along the Cache La Poudre through Fort Collins. Please call for volunteer information. 

 

Recycling

____Mountain Whitewater Descents believes that environmental sustainability must be the core of our business. Our business floats atop the winters variable snowpack and we must be wary of our impacts to the earth.>  We strive to utilize our natural resources without causing a negative impact on them. Along with sustainability, raising appreciation for our environment is also vital to our success as a rafting company. The potential environmental impacts are always in mind as we are directly accountable for those impacts. Taking our guests rafting in Wild and Scenic areas coupled with Mountain Whitewater Descents philosophies makes for a perfect opportunity to educate guests to make good environmental choices themselves. In some way or another, our whole company has been recycled. The River is recycled snow, school busses are re-used, and the land we own was an old dairy farm. Using salvaged lumber and materials we have converted it into our office and recreation areas. The milking shed is now the boat barn; the pasture is now a volleyball court, frisbee golf course and one cool barbeque. A water holding pond was revitalized into a fish pond with wetlands that houses a mating pair of Mallard Ducks each year.  Leaving a minimal impact is so important to us that we discuss it in every paddle talk. We can be optimistic that after spending the day in a pristine canyon like ours, anyone can find a good reason why we all need to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Maybe our guests will be excited to improve their stewardship practices when they get home and certainly when they return to any wilderness.

 

Doing a good evaluation is the most effective way we determine which changes to implement. Evaluation is now the new buzzword in the natural resource management field; however, a good evaluation is useless unless you are prepared to make those changes. We have always been open to suggestions and will continue evolve. We also have a good staff that has returned year after year and put a lot of effort into making each season, MWD and the Poudre Canyon better. When implementing new policies, our staff is encouraged to contribute new ideas as well as identify problem areas. While we eagerly await a facility closer that has biodiesel, we have not converted.  For us to drive to the nearest facility, we would be doing more harm than good.  When circumstances change, Mountain Whitewater Descents is poised for conversion with four Diesel busses.  Croc sandals are no longer allowed because guides were noticing that they were littering the river in large numbers.  We also realized how many people were wasting full disposable water bottles so now we only allow attachable bottles. 

All our decisions both large and small add up.

           

Mountain Whitewater Descents has made changes and modifications ever since that first season and will continue to expand for years to come. A rafting company must be versatile enough to deal with unforeseen challenges and to solve problems while being resourceful. An enormous Cottonwood tree fell on our office last year but caused minimal damage after it was removed. What to do you do with 5 ft wide tree stumps was the real question? New flower beds, Frisbee golf tees, and picnic tables that will last for years. We have received great ideas from other business owners, our staff, as well as our customers. 

 

 

Once again having a constant evaluation process has been key when identifying what worked well and what did not.  Not all days are good on the river so we try to keep a positive attitude when dealing with tough situations. In addition, Brad stresses the importance of thinking creatively and paying attention to new ideas.  This open-minded atmosphere raises morale and definitely helps the company be successful. By networking in the community we have reused “trash” to revamp our recycle program and offered a place for local tree companies to reduce their mulch waste. Taking accountability for our actions is just as important as setting good examples.  Guides and staff have spent hundreds of hours doing river and highway cleanup as a penance for all those paddles that are lost.

           

Our advice is to be resourceful and think as creatively as possible. Imaginations are often confined by everyday life and can be very useful when solving problems in our business. We used 55 gallon vanilla containers from one local business and 5-gallon pickle buckets from another and coupled it all with a broken rafting paddle to make our own  9 hole frisbee golf course for free.  You can look around and find great ways to divert waste from our lakes, rivers, and landfills just by using an open and creative mind.