Volunteer for a Vesica This October

The organizations that build and maintain our trails rely on the efforts of volunteers - if you enjoy using your local trails and have been thinking it's time to give back, now's your chance! And if you get out there in the month of October, we'll even give you a free Vesica.

Trail maintenance is important to Cnoc, to the point we have monthly staff trail work days and an adopted section of the PCT. We want to get outside and we want our customers to get outside, so we want there to be places for that to happen. While discussing ways to include our customers in that value, we came up with the Cnoc October trail work incentive campaign. Basically, if folks signed up for and did trail maintenance during the month of October, we would send them a Vesica collapsible water bottle. That's it. No purchase necessary. No need to be an existing customer. No need to be a future customer. The core motivation is just to get more volunteers on trails before winter begins and trail work season ends. Read on for a full explanation of how to participate, rules and regulations, and a (by no means complete) list of recommended trail work organizations if you need some help getting started.

During the month of October, social media users can post pictures of themselves participating in a volunteer trail work event facilitated by an established trail maintenance organization with the hashtag #volunteerforavesica to receive a free Vesica collapsible water bottle from Cnoc Outdoors as a thank you for their participation. Social posts will result in Cnoc reaching out via direct message within 1 business day to a form where participants fill out product preferences, shipping info, and submit proof of participation. Vesicas will ship after the campaign ends on November 4th.

What's an established trail maintenance organization? By that we mostly mean we want you to volunteer through an organization that knows what needs to be done and can utilize your help most effectively. We've compiled a list of organizations sorted by region to give you some ideas, but this is by no means a comprehensive list - participation is not limited to just these organizations. Each of these organizations has events in October.

New England (ME, NH, VT, MA, RI, CT)

Appalachian Mountain Club, Maine Trail Crew, Volunteer Long Trail Patrol, Catamount Trail Association, Chocorua Mountain Club, Connecticut Forest and Park Association, Friends of the Blue Hills, Friends of the Wapack, Green Mountain Club, Mass Audubon, Natural Groupie, Squam Lakes Association, The Cohos Trail Association (TCTA), The Nature Conservancy, Volunteers in the Parks, White Mountain National Forest, Winding Trails

Mid-Atlantic (DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA)

Delaware State Parks, Delaware Greenways, Finger Lakes Trails Conference, Keystone Trails Association, Montgomery Parks, NYNJ Trail Conference, NJ Department of Parks and Forests, The Yankee Clippers/Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC)

Southeast (AL, AR, DC, GA, FL, MS, LA, KY, NC, SC, TN, VA, WV)

Konnarock Trail Crew, Rocky Top Trail Crew, Smokies Wilderness Elite A.T. Crew (SWEAT), Carolina Mountain Club, Florida Trail Association, Friends of the Mountains, Pisgah Area SORBA, Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC), Spooky Beavers & Prince William Forest Park, Tennessee Trails Association, The Flying McCleods, The Rock Creek Filibusters

Midwest (IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, ND, NE, OH, SD, WI)

Black Hills Trails, Buckeye Trail Association, Central Iowa Trail Association, Ice Age Trail Alliance, Friends of Ouachita Trail, The Ozark Trail Association, North Country Trail Association, Superior Hiking Trail, Urban Trail Company

Mountain West (CO, ID, MT, NV, UT, WY)

Boulder Climbing Community, Boulder Mountainbike Alliance, Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, Continental Divide Trail Coalition, Fountain Creek Watershed Flood Control and Greenway District, Friends of Cheyenne Mountain State Park, Friends of Colorado State Parks, Friends of Mount Evans & Lost Creek Wilderness, Friends of the Dillon Ranger District, Friends of the Peak, Grand Junction chapter of Great Old Broads for Wilderness, Grand Valley Trails Alliance, Medicine Wheel Trail Advocates, Purgatoire Watershed Partnership, Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers, Rocky Mountain Field Institute, Salida Mountain Trails, Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado, Wilderness Workshop

Pacific (AK, HI, WA, OR, CA)

Advocates for the Forest of Nisene Marks, California State Parks Foundation, Chugach State Park, Forest Park Conservancy, Greater Hells Canyon Council, High Cascades Forest Volunteers, Nature Conservancy of Oregon, Oregon Timber Trail, Pacific Crest Trail Association, Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship, Trailkeepers of Oregon, Washington Trails Association

Southwest (AZ, NM, TX, OK)

Arizona Trail Association, Sam Houston Trails Coalition

Rules + Regulations:

-Participation is limited to the USA

-Photos must be public, posted to Facebook or Instagram, and include #volunteerforavesica - make sure to check your spelling!

-Participants cannot be paid during their volunteer time.

-Participation is defined as volunteer work with an established trail maintenance organization i.e. participants that do unsanctioned work on their own or volunteer with an organization that does not do trail work do not qualify. Cnoc reserves the right to determine what qualifies as an established trail work organization.

-Cnoc reserves the right to refuse participation to any post that includes content that doesn’t align with Cnoc’s company values (i.e. includes hate speech, offensive content, clear violations of LNT guidelines, etc)

-Participants must be able to provide proof of participation from the organization volunteered with.

-Trail work must be completed during the month of October - proof of participation must include date of event.

-Proof of participation must be provided by November 4th, 2022. Vesicas will begin shipping after November 4th, 2022