Give With Us

“My Aunt Janet gave me the opportunity to learn to love nature. Growing up in NYC, I would ‘escape’ to the Adirondacks occasionally to spend time with my Aunts who lived near the southern end of the ADK park.

Aunt Janet lived in a little log home in the woods. In the winter she cross country skied. In the summer and fall, she kayaked and camped. I didn’t understand until later what a formative impact these experiences with my Aunt had on me…

… because now I live in a little log home in the woods. And I ski in the winter and canoe and camp in the summer and fall. The lakes and the mountains of the Adirondacks are my heart and soul. In them, I have found my true home.

I forget how fortunate… or shall I say privileged…  I am sometimes… to live in such a beautiful, quiet, natural place. It isn’t until we travel for work, go into the city, into office buildings, into places where other people spend the majority of the time that I remember… My home in the ADK is where I remember who I truly am. I remember to breathe, I remember to be quiet. I restore myself. I feel whole and alive. Not everyone has the opportunity to feel like this in their lives. Some people do not know what it is like to eat clean, local, organic food from the farm down the street, breathe clean air, swim in clean water. Some people have never made friends with the earth and the animals. Some people have never seen the expanse of green trees from the top of a mountain or felt the spaciousness of floating in a quiet, cool lake. Some people have never had the opportunity to experience the PEACE THAT AWAITS US ALL when we have a deep and meaningful, intimate relationship with nature.

As an adult… I have made decisions that have helped me to raise my family in this beautiful place. Even though my kids play video games and say they can’t wait to get ‘out of here’… nature is in their hearts. They will always know where to go to restore their soul. Because of their time in quiet places came during their formative years they will never be afraid to be outside, be quiet, without technology… They will know how to rely on themselves and the natural world and somewhere in themselves feel safe. They will know how to be kind to the planet and to others.

We have given this experience to our own children… but we can give more… and we will.

Every child deserves the opportunity to experience exceptional levels of mental wellness and emotional wellbeing as a way of LIFE.” 

-Ani Anderson, CEO, Motivation Beyond Measure

We give 5% of every dollar that comes into our business to send a child who wouldn’t normally be able to go… into the woods… So they can find their “true home.”

Motivation Beyond Measure has partnered with the Deepwater Project. DEEP is a not-for-profit organization that provides funding for young people from diverse cultural and economic backgrounds to participate in Northwaters & Langskib wilderness canoe programs.​

Northwaters Langskib

Canoe camping is just the beginning… Northwaters and Langskib (NWL) offers wilderness adventures designed to engage and empower young people. Within the context of a fun and challenging canoe trip, they use proven techniques in community building, group process, experiential learning, and storytelling to create a pathway through adolescence. This approach makes us unique among wilderness adventure camps. And provides children with an experience of embodied empowered meaning. 

This mission is not about sending kids to camp.

Living in the NorthEast of northern North America, there are many “camps” that give children outdoor experiences. Having worked at a summer camp after my freshman year of college… I can tell you first hand… not all camps are a safe place for children, let alone children who have experienced trauma, which unfortunately underprivileged children are more likely to have in their life’s history. Not only are many camps not psychologically safe, but many also are not diverse due to having the vast majority of campers be from privileged families. Many camps also employ a less than diverse staff. Many camps are out giving parents a break or a place for kids to go spend some time during the summer. 

Our mission is to give children an empowering experience of authenticity, self-reliance, vulnerability, psychological safety where children are encouraged to grow into the best version of themselves. They learn how to be with the land, the water, and the sky, how to be with one another, and ultimately how to be with themselves.

At Motivation Beyond Measure we strive to give our clients this experience. 

This is the experience that has been created at the internationally recognized Northwaters Langskib program. 

We are committed to helping kids who couldn’t otherwise afford it experience Motivation Beyond Measure… as a way of LIFE by participating in Northwaters Langskib programing.