Growing up in an urban setting, we, Keisha (left) and Tarsha Scovens – twins and co-founders of Let’s Go Outdoors - didn’t start life with a passion and love for the outdoors, nor did we come from a family of avid campers, hikers, swimmers, or bikers. 

In actuality, our general idea of outdoor activity growing up was playing games like, "red light, green light," dodge-ball, double-dutch, or kick-ball along the busy street we grew up on - always having to pause the game for oncoming traffic – not that we cared much at the time.  We also made good use of the swing set in our yard and regularly went to the neighborhood school playground. It’s not that we didn’t get outdoors, it’s just our experience of the outdoors didn’t extend beyond the “neighborhood” or backyard. 

However, as we grew from children to teenagers, we experienced new outdoor activities through Girl Scouts, summer camps, after-school programs, and conversations with outdoorsy individuals, sparking our desire to do more outside.  With this inner-drive and our energetic attitude, we found ourselves, as 20-somethings, driving cross country (3,000 or so miles) with a beat-up 2-person tent, backpacks and paper book atlas (no cell phones) ready to experience the outdoors as it was portrayed in the movies.  “Oh,” did we learn a lot of lessons on that trip (ask us about it sometime, since we now laugh about many of our mistakes), though no book or lesson could provide us with the unimaginable beauty and awe we experienced by physically visiting local, state and national parks during that trip.

Interestingly, as we did all of this traveling and experiencing, there was always one thought nagging us, “Where are all the other people of color?!” 

After years of other outdoor experiences, research, survey collections and better understanding our own culture, we answered that nagging question.  And our answer is…Minorities lack exposure to and experience in the outdoors due to misguided perceptions, limited channels to experience the outdoors within their community, and the BIGGEST reason of them all is the absence of parental or family involvement in outdoor recreation activities. 

As you probably noticed, even in our recollection of our outdoor stories and experiences, there’s the absence of our parents and/or families involvement.  Now, with families of our own (both of us having daughters under the age of 5) and our deep interest in diversifying the “outdoors,” we are seeking to build a community that connects minorities to outdoor recreation in a unique, healthy, inspirational, family-friendly way; hence, the creation of Let’s Go Outdoors. 

We invite you to join us as we build our community!  Become a Let’s Go Outdoors member, tell others about our program or consider connecting or partnering your organization with us.  We're excited about the future of outdoor recreation amongst city and minority communities and appreciate your interest in us.  We look forward to hearing from you and hope to see you outdoors!

Sincerely,
Keisha and Tarsha