Sam Gregory, the founder of Brooklyn To Alaska, has spent over 35 years tackling serious cases as a criminal defense attorney in New York. He witnessed people young and old succumb to their own environment, many of whom lacked adequate resources and a fighting chance of overcoming cycles of crime and trauma.
His clients were the exact people who needed to experience the healing virtues of nature, something he discovered while on a solo cycling trip throughout the West in the 1970s.
Gregory imagined that if nature was this expansive in its ability to heal a person holistically, then it must be shared with those around him. He came back from his trip and spent years trying to connect with organizations to send Brooklyn students to Alaska, to little avail.
But after a neighbor told him to “stop complaining and just do it yourself,” Gregory laced up his boots in 2008 and committed to taking five students to the mountains in Alaska for a trip of a lifetime.
Now, over the past 16 years, Gregory’s passion project has helped the next generation of Black and brown students become certified wilderness guides and experience the world outside of their homes through various skill-building and growth exercises in Alaska.
“What I hope this program does is just create the time and the space for these kids to be able to experience that [Alaska] in whatever way they experience, " Gregory told BK Reader. “[To] create whatever narrative they want to create based upon the opportunity to be in a place that's beautiful and quiet, that sounds different.”
The nonprofit partners with schools and organizations around the city, like the nonprofit BKLYN Combine, to find students that are recommended by teachers and guidance counsellors.
From these recommendations, up to 10 students are selected to participate in the two-week program, split into a Girl’s and Boy’s Trip. They can then be nominated by group leaders to join the Grad to Guide program for certification.
When the students arrive, group leaders take each participant's phone to ensure they are fully immersed in the trip, which Gregory said is one of the hardest part for some participants. They are allowed contact with their family on designated days and can be reached through group leaders, however.
During the program, participants learn survival skills like how to cook a meal, hike a mountain and set up a camp in and around Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, America's largest national park. The trip also involves rafting on the wild Chitina River.
McKi Calix, a 13-year-old from East New York, admitted he was initially nervous about attending the trip because he didn’t know what to expect. But as he got to know the other participants, he felt much more comfortable, he said.
With the help of his peers and group leaders, Calix was able to overcome the difficulty of hiking the steep slopes of the Kennecott Trails and McCarthy Road, which taught him to never give up, he said.
Beyond learning wilderness skills, participants learn how to tackle difficult challenges, Gregory said. Students who go into the program not sure of their capabilities show they are capable of doing hard things under pressure.
“The biggest accomplishment we have is we change people's image of themselves,” said Gregory. “And they [participants] come back with a level of confidence they didn't have when they left.”
To find out more information about Brooklyn To Alaska, you can visit their website here.
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