Outreach
A Youthful Reminder: Optimist Youth Homes at Verdigo Boulders
By KJ de Jesus. “I think it’s important for us as a society to remember that the youth within juvenile justice systems are, most of the time, youths who simply haven’t had the right mentors and supporters around them—because of circumstances beyond their control.” –Q’orianka Kilcher We all climb for different reasons—some folks enjoy…
One Step at A Time: Life Lessons from Climbing with Life Academy
Life Academy of Health and Bioscience is a small public high school in Oakland that prepares students in grades 6 through 12 to become our future health professionals. Life Academy has been coming to our San Francisco and East Bay gyms for several years, and it’s always an honor to be a part of…
New Challenges for Students with Special Needs at Diablo Rock Gym
By Greg Reichardt. Greg Reichardt (A.K.A. Mr. Greg), special education teacher for the Contra Costa County Office of Education in Brentwood, has been bringing his special day class to Diablo Rock Gym in Concord, CA since the beginning of 2019. His students with special needs have a combination of learning disabilities and behavior and…
Covenant House Climbs at Hollywood Boulders
Photos by Fred Pompermeyer. Covenant House California is a nonprofit organization that provides sanctuary and support for youth ages 18–24 facing homelessness and human trafficking. They’ve been offering crucial services to address the holistic health of their beneficiaries since 1988, including meals, case management, education, medical care, internships, and clothing. Hollywood Boulders has been proud…
Seven Years Strong: Valley Children’s Hospital and MetalMark Adaptive Climbing Program
Dr. Jennifer Crocker, the Medical Director of Valley Children’s Hospital’s Pediatric Rehabilitation Department, has been bringing children with disabilities to MetalMark Climbing + Fitness since 2012. Adaptive sports are a powerful way to show the kids that their bodies are strong and capable. We believe that climbing is for everyone, and it is a…
Climbing through Recovery: Bay Area Rescue Mission at Great Western Power Co.
Climbing may rank pretty low on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, but we’ve found that it can play an integral role in helping people rebuild after their lives have been shattered. Bay Area Rescue Mission is an organization dedicated to helping people experiencing homelessness, addiction, or folks who are otherwise down and out get back…
The Boyle Heights Boys and Girls Club Partnership with LA Boulders
By Holly Rock. All photos by Fred Pompermeyer unless otherwise attributed. Working with the kids and staff of the Boyle Heights Boys and Girls Club (VBGC) has been an amazing honor for the LA Boulders team and we are thrilled by the interest this partnership has generated from our members. Having the opportunity to empower…
Team Touchstone at Color the Crag 2018
This year’s Color the Crag at Horsepens 40 in Steele, Alabama was bigger than ever. Offering an incredible array of climbing clinics, panels, and breakout sessions ranging from how to project outside to positive masculinity (not to mention some truly powerful events like a keynote delivered by James Mills, a performance by Deqn Sue, and a…
Queer Crush, Pride Parties, and Lots of Love: Pride 2018 at Touchstone
June is one of our favorite months of the year, because it’s PRIDE MONTH! We love taking this time to celebrate our beautiful, diverse community and to honor the lives of those who made this month possible. This year, we are celebrating with new Pride stickers and Pride shirts, 100% of the proceeds of…
Ruth Asawa at Dogpatch Boulders
Climbers often insist that, in addition to being a great workout and a fun way to interact with the outdoors, rock climbing is a creative activity. Boulder problems are puzzles to be solved using your body, oftentimes in configurations that are pretty specific to your strengths and dimensions. It’s no wonder then that students from…
Mission Cliffs Fosters World Peace
By Ting Chin. No seriously, we totally do! And not just with Jordan’s random, prolonged hugs to strangers and Dan’s sporadic calls of encouragement to struggling climbers from the desk. Not just with treating our employees and members with respect and compassion and rising to the daily toil of folding many dozens of towels in…
Thank You Touchstone Community for an Amazing 2017!
We are well past the holiday hangovers and into our #NewYearNewYou resolutions, but we wanted to take a moment to reflect on the incredible things that happened in the Touchstone community in 2017. We use the word “community” a lot because it fully encompasses the things we care about most—the people and places that are…