Today we’d like to introduce you to Erick Burgos.
Erick is an active duty Navy Chief who has given his country 17 years of faithful service. He loves hiking, backpacking & mountaineering, among other things. He finds the outdoors very calming and healing and believes the therapeutic power of nature is very powerful. His mental and physical health has drastically improved because of the time he spends outdoors.
In 2018 while hiking the highest summits in Southern California and after a successful Mt. Whitney summit, he realized that he needed to share such experiences with other service members and veterans in the hope that they too benefit physically and mentally in their way from outdoor experiences such as hiking and backpacking. With the support of his loving wife and family, he founded Hiking 4 Heroes to inspire and empower service members and veterans to opt outside by providing them with the resources to do so. In 2019 he started organizing and hosting local hikes around San Diego to start promoting the idea opting outside among service members and veterans. During that year he was limited to the number of hikes he could host an organized due to being deployed for 6 months out of the year. He did not let that stop him, he spent time during deployment developing and defining the long terms goals of the organization. After his return, he implemented a better organizational structure for the organization and three programs to better fulfill his mission and vision.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It has not been a smooth road, some of the struggles along the way have been not being able to dedicate more time to the organization since I am still on active duty, growing the organization to reach a wider audience and fundraising has been slow.
Please tell us about your organization.
The mission of the organization is to cultivate an improved quality of life for service members & veterans through the therapeutic nature of outdoor activities. The vision is to inspire & empower service members and veterans to opt outside through organized hikes, backpacking trips and expeditions.
The organization organizes monthly hikes and once a year takes a team of service members and/or veterans to summit some of the tallest mountains in the continental United States. The goal of the program is to benefit service members and veterans by creating a challenging experience in which they can build resilience, teamwork and take advantage of the therapeutic and healing effects of the outdoors.
We are proud of being an organization that simply inspires service members and veterans to opt outside, there is plenty of professional research that shows how the outdoors are extremely beneficial for physical and mental health and through our mission we wanted to make sure we empower service members and veterans to spend time in the outdoors so they can benefit from it.
We also started partnering with the Six Pack of Peaks challenge and the 52 Hike Challenge to sponsor service members and veterans and cover their registration fees.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success for the organization is going to be defined by the number of service members and veterans we assist and encourage to join our hikes. Success will also be based on the number of donations we collect to continue to fulfill our mission and vision. Growing our audience to achieve both is a key factor in achieving success.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.hiking4heroes.org
- Email: info@hiking4heroes.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hiking4heroes/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Hiking4Heroes/?eid=ARDY7yC8ywW5d-pRlq-KqxgOq-eX1_HpVIX-8deaR3XIufzn8zZGIWElAv9FOkYNXTsfriHj7ZJgoaPx
Image Credit:
Hiking 4 Heroes
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