Les Voyageurs Inc.

Thank You!

Ryan — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 03:52:04 +0000

Give to the Max day was a very important day for LVI. During the day we raised $7,578 from 93 donors in just 24 hours. This money will go to supporting our ongoing work to help build the leaders of the future.

If you have been a part of Les Voyageurs you may know we are run without any full-time paid staff. This means that your support goes directly to the heart of our mission, the trips. The sort of support we witnessed on Give to the Max Day reaffirms our commitment to providing Central MN’s youth with formative leadership experiences at a crucial time of adolescence.

GiveMN.org and the Give to the Max Day event have been great tools for our organization because they allow us to focus our attention on what matters–providing safe and meaningful trips, and not on the fundraising and paperwork. Give to the Max Day took about two hours of time to organize on our part. A couple emails, a few Facebook posts, and some website work and we were set. This saves us money that we might have otherwise had to spend on mailings and other means of fundraising.

Thank you again for your generous spirit on November 16th. We appreciate your trust and support. Many of the donors that supported us on Wednesday left comments on your GiveMN page. We think they tell the story best. Please visit http://givemn.razoo.com/story/Lvi to read the comments near the bottom of the page.

Here’s a little comparison of our past two Give to the Max Days:

2010: $4,050 from 83 donors. This number of donors placed us 32nd among ‘Greater MN non-profits.’

2011: $7,578 from 93 donors. This amount of money placed us 75th among ‘small non-profits’ in MN.

If you’d like to view the complete results or view a video titled ‘Thank you MN,’ visit: www.givemn.org. Overall 47,534 donors raised $13,418,376 for 3,978 Minnesota non-profits…in one day!

What a great 30 minutes!

Ryan — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:25:26 +0000

From 7:39am-8:09am, we received $1,375 from seven wonderful donors. We’ve moved up the leaderboard among small non-profits. Small, defined as non-profits with annual budgets under $750,000, is a bit of an understatement for us. This is why Give to the Max Day and your support are so important to us. We can do a lot of great work with very little, but we do need your support. As a primarily volunteer run organization, you can rest assured that nearly all of your donation will go directly to making our trips safe and successful.

Thank you for your support. Check out the leaderboard here: http://givemn.razoo.com/p/2011-small-nonprofits

3am?

Ryan — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 02:26:09 +0000

A number of former guides will be setting their alarms for 3:00am early tomorrow morning. Why is this you ask? It’s not for a night paddle and it is not to view the northern lights. No, they will be trying to donate for Give to the Max Day at a time when everyone else is sleeping, attempting to improve our chances at the $1,000 non-profit lottery, otherwise known as the ‘Golden Ticket.’

Each hour GiveMN.org will draw one donor from the previous 60 minutes and whichever non-profit that person donated to will receive $1,000. Sounds easy enough? This is how you can turn a $10 donation into $1,000 for LVI.

If you can fall asleep quickly or if you are a few time zones ahead, consider particpating with these former guides. Who knows, maybe your $10 will magically turn into $1,000.

Watch our blog all day tomorrow for updates and stories. Check out www.les-voyageurs.org/gtmd11 for more details.

Happy donating!

New Give to the Max Resource Page

Ryan — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 16:24:18 +0000

We’ve put all the information for Give to the Max Day in one place. Please visit http://www.les-voyageurs.org/gtmd11/ to learn more.

Give to the Max Day is Coming

Ryan — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 23:33:44 +0000

Last year, Give to the Max Day was a great day for LVI. We raised over $4,000 in 24 hours. We’re participating again this year.

Want to learn more? Read our latest newsletter here about Give to the Max day here: http://eepurl.com/gPfXL

Route Maps are Online

Ryan — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 13:56:35 +0000

Crews and Parents,

Thanks again for a wonderful summer. I’m signing you all up for our email list, but if you’d prefer to not be on it simply click ‘unsubscribe’ on the bottom of the email the next time you get an email from us.

Every guide has put their route maps on each crew page on the right hand sidebar. You can revisit your route or show others where you went. If your guide forgot something important or made an error, let he or she know and it can be fixed.

Enjoy!

Oh Canada how we love thee

guide — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 02:09:57 +0000

Well it has been 5 days since we arrived home! Crazy to think that a week ago, we were still on trail paddling and portaging the Berens River. Unfortunately, our amazing trip had to come to an end. As we were flying from the Berens River Village to Biscuit Harbor, there were tears of sadness not wanting to leave. More tears flowed, as the bus pulled up, as the girls did not want to part ways with Canada. However, our 26 days on trail were over. That doesn’t mean the growth and lessons that were learned on trail ended on Day 26, rather the growth will continue for many months to come, and the lessons you will always remember for life. Never forget what you experienced and got out of this trip, each and everyone of you grew and changed in so many ways and you each experienced something very special, always remind yourself of who you were and who you became on trail. You all are amazing, young women with a bright future ahead of you.

Crewmembers: Thank you for making my last trip the best trip ever. I couldn’t have asked for a better crew. You were so motivated, hard working, dedicated, determined, and of course, you were a really fun bunch to be around. We had awesome times on trail, from accomplishing Obuqowin 1 in 2 hours, Little Sass in 2 1/2 hours, swimming in Aikens Lake, floating down 4th of July Falls, our whole layover, our night paddle across Family Lake, the Leyond “River,” paddling Family and Night Owl Lake in extreme wind, beating the boys in the question game, Beaver Dam Falls, sitting in the forest waiting out the thunderstorm, and SOOOO many other good memories. Our list could go on and on. I am going to miss you guys when I depart on Thursday, but don’t be a stranger, I am just a text, call, even a facebook post away. Oh and I do have skype, if you miss seeing my face every day .

Parents: Thank you very much for trusting me with your daughter’s this summer. I hope that you enjoyed hearing their stories and are able to see their growth that took place on trail. I appreciate what each of you did to help make this a successful summer. A big thank you goes to Mark Prom for working on the trailer and bus, Bruce Osendorf for working on the bus radiator, the Kippley’s for lending us their garage for dehydrating, and Shiela Stainbrook for taking on the role as Crew Coordinator. And of course thank you to all the other parents for helping out with making meals, letting us take over your house for sleepovers, sewing ditty bags, packing packs, and so much more. We couldn’t have done it without you.

And of course thank you to Fred, Roberta, Ryan, Dr. Halstrom and all the other Voyageur guides for all they have done for the program this year and in years past. This trip wouldn’t be possible without you.

I wish everyone a great rest of their summer and an awesome school year! I look forward to seeing you all whenever I am home. Once again, THANK YOU FOR AN AWESOME SUMMER! I am sad to see it come to an end!

Love,

Tricia (Mama Chi)

P.S. Can’t wait for our camp out on Tuesday

LVI Garage Sale!

Ryan — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 16:41:04 +0000

Need a tent? Stove? Water filter?

The end of another fantastic summer has come and we’re having a garage sale to celebrate. We have gear from years past that we don’t have a use for any longer, but could be used by others. We’ll have tents, stoves, water filters, LVI T-Shirts and decals, dehydrators, tarps, and more. Please note that we will be selling canoes at a later time. If you are interested in buying a canoe, please fill out our ‘Used Canoe Purchase Interest Form‘ Cash or check only.

Details
Dates: August 13th and 14th
Time: 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. (both days)
Location: The Pit at Cathedral High School (just north of the North Gym)

(312 7th Avenue North St. Cloud, MN 56303)

Questions? Email us at: lesvoyageursinc@gmail.com and put garage sale in the subject line.

LVI Garage Sale!

Ryan — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 16:38:58 +0000

Need a tent? Stove? Water filter?

Details
Dates: August 13th and 14th
Time: 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. (both days)
Location: The Pit at Cathedral High School (just north of the North Gym)

(312 7th Avenue North St. Cloud, MN 56303)

Questions? Email us at: lesvoyageursinc@gmail.com and put garage sale in the subject line.

On the way up

Ryan — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 01:34:20 +0000

Fred, four first session guides, and I are nearly to Grand Forks on our way up to bring back second session. We’re recounting stories from first session now that the trips have had a few weeks to set in. We are excited to hear how first session trips have gone.

We’ll head first to Pine Falls, Manitoba to collect the trailer that was damaged while bringing first session up. Once we have the trailer, we’ll head to Biscuit Harbor where two crews will land from Berens River village. Jake’s crew will be picked up last from the docking site of a ferry from Bloodvein Village.

We will arrive home to Perkins in Sauk Rapids at 6:00am on Wednesday.