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We have set the ball rolling, we made one turn around the sun – we were registered in February, and we celebrated our birthday in March 2016, so it’s time for a cake. The ingredients of our cake are natural exploration, of course, and self-discovery, love, constant learning, passion, experience, play, change, awareness, striving for mastery, spaces, curiosity, realisation, connectedness, support. We want to share this cake with everyone, it’s delicious, there is a piece for everyone and each piece is enough for a whole year :).

We love what we do and discover ourselves in the mountains, in experiential learning, facilitating, volunteering, events, networking, and we are happy to meet you, us, nature, and to learn together. We thank for the support we receive from people and nature, for the partnerships and the trust, for the audacity, and the joy of what we have experienced, learned, shared.

Over the past year, we set several balls rolling in our space.

We started the #MountainILoveYou campaign that sheds light on the need to pay attention to our relationship with nature, and in particular children and young people’s relationship to nature, and on what we can do to support it. In the campaign, we have been raising funds for organising camps for young people who have not been in the mountains so far, and this is free of charge for them with equipment provided by us. This is the first time we have organised fundraising and this has been a real learning space for us.

We also thank The Bulgarian Centre for Not-for-Profit Law, who supported our concept and are always available for questions and comments. A big thank you to Lyubo Popyordanov and Stenata shops who supported us at once – financially, conceptually and community wise, for they recognized the campaign as their own. When you buy products by DEUTER, BUFF, JULBO, BERGHAUS in Stenata shops, you help a child and a youth go to the mountains. We thank our volunteer group – the people who supported the campaign at the beginning when this was crucial.

We met our concept for Natural Explorers – we will tell you more about it when it is ready to be shared. We can say that it is highly inspiring, accessible and inclusive.

The ‘Mountain, I Love You!’ campaign became the cornerstone of our natural exploration. It helps see what kind of world we want to create in the distant future.

The other “rolling ball” in Natural Explorers’ space we had been dreaming about is #VolunteeringWorkshop – training for volunteer coordinators, both current and future ones. We have completed two trainings, we are happy. We saw the potential for this need. We are looking forward to unfolding this canvas and drawing on it.

We participated in the Children’s Camp of Bikearea Association and Reverso Adventure School, like we had done for the last 3-4 years. Our group of instructors expanded, we added to  our communication and experience.

We took people to the mountains. We passed the torch and ensured there is continuity in the processes of Beglika Fest. We expanded our comfort zones, learned new skills, shared our values. There were various moments – some things were happening with ease while others presented difficulties, but in each case we tried to see the grain that binds us. And to understand how we can do our best for ourselves, for others, for our community processes, in a word – for nature, because we are all nature.

We continue to turn around the sun and to make our natural exploration a reality. The inspiration is in each of us, we learn how to support it to manifest itself. If you liked the cake, you are welcome to create together with us. “Rolling the ball” requires energy, and energy is the strongest when it is shared.