People who give are cool - especially Libby Boyd!

Today we have a guest blog from Libby Boyd - a friend and 'family member' of Outdoor Mindset - who recently committed to donating a portion of each sale she makes as a Realtor for Pedal to Properties to our one and only Outdoor Mindset. Some people say they're going to do something this awesome, but Libby is so committed she put it in writing, too!

"Donations" come in many forms: volunteering, hosting an event, setting a goal and fundraising through Crowdrise , or donating a little off the top of your income, etc. The possibilities are endless. Whatever you're able to do, know that it's appreciated a million times over and goes a LONG way for little non-profits like us. So

thank you, thank you, thank you

to the amazing Libby Boyd and all the other inspiring individuals who have already helped us and will help us in the future.

Here's what Libby has to say:

“If you love what you do, you don’t work a day in your life.” I completely agree with that quote since I spend my days finding the perfect home for my clients. Being the conduit that results in happy home owners is most rewarding. Getting paid to help in their purchases is “the cherry on top” for me.

This income provides for my family but once the essentials are taken care of, I wish to give back to my community. This is why I am donating a portion of each transaction towards Outdoor Mindset. I believe the organization really helps newly diagnosed people with neurological challenges through the power of nature, exercise and personal connection.

The only way to connect as many people as possible is to gain presence at events and on the internet. The organization also must have someone dedicated to overseeing the connections and ensure everyone is getting what they need. By donating a portion of my income, I will be providing funds to support this valuable service. If my financial contribution gains Outdoor Mindset entry to one more event in which they connect one individual in need of this outreach, that will be extremely rewarding.

Spending money is easy but I find few ways that are as rewarding as giving to develop a non-profit that I feel so strongly about. I would encourage everyone to see if there’s room in their personal budget to donate to Outdoor Mindset. Perhaps consider passing on a cute new pair of shoes or dining out and do something that will make you just as happy and positively affect the lives of one or many people. I am blessed that I get to do what I love every day allowing me to donate to a such a valuable cause.

- Libby Boyd

She's pretty fabulous- right? We sure do appreciate her for everything she does for OM (and not only for her donation commitment, but also for things like

whipping

up an antipasto platter in the middle of the wilderness on our Board Retreat). I don't know what we would do without active, engaged, dedicated supporters like her.

Now what are you going to do? No pressure or anything... ;)

Don't forget to enjoy the sunset,

Jill

Play Your Cards Right- Like Channing

Today we have a special guest blog from one of the most inspiring, awesome almost-18 year olds I've ever met! Channing, who lives in beautiful Basalt, Colorado, contacted us at

Outdoor Mindset

about some ways to get involved and help spread the good word about Outdoor Mindset. We thought the perfect Step 1 would be sharing her amazing story of LIVING BIG with epilepsy and continuing to get outdoors as a form of inspiration and solace in her life.

Here's a little background on Channing before she jumps in: She was born and raised in Aspen, her favorite colors are

orange

and

purple

, loves almost all things outdoors, and is interning with Glenwood Vet Clinic. Oh yeah, and she's a killer when it comes to Texas Hold'em!

Here is what she has to say to you all:

"Everyone is dealt a bad hand in life. It’s what you do with that hand that makes one so unique. This can be anywhere from being rich to divorce, epilepsy to quadriplegic, homeless to starving. Everything in life may not happen for a reason, but without the bad in life, we cannot experience the good. I graduated high school on the 28th, so I am no expert, but I do know, I would not be the person I am today without it.

My dreams about becoming a veterinarian technician-possible vet, an EMT, and ski coach came earlier than I thought. I started riding horses when I was five years old and started competing in hunters at the age of seven. However, three years later I was diagnosed with epilepsy after having multiple tonic clonics. My passion, what my life revolved around seemed to be gone. Epilepsy didn’t take anything away from me. My family and I, instead, created a solution. We got a titanium helmet, and in the event I fall off, we got an inflatable air vest that protects not only my head and neck, but all of my internal organs. My first epileptologist didn’t like the idea of an epileptic riding horses and thought I should have collected stamps. 1) Every horseback rider falls off, 2) horses have an amazing connection and sense with their rider and in the end will come to a halt if they sense something is wrong… I’ve had two tonic clonic seizures on my horse and as well myoclonic jerks, and 3) I’m not the only one falling off their horse, it could happen to anybody, maybe people I ride with will have a seizure on their horse unexpectedly out of the blue. Because of my horsing habit, I believe in animal therapy so much. Now I jump four feet and compete against professionals in more advanced shows that go on for two weeks all around Colorado. I have a crazy dream of going to the Olympics.

I work for the manager at the ranch (Cozy Point Ranch) I board my horse at. There I have learned not only about good horsemanship, but how to care for horses if they are injured. I found my interest in veterinarian medicine there when we were caring for a horse that had fell down a cliff and its owner asked Cozy Point Ranch help take care of him. The manager asked me to clean its wounds out, wrap him, put gauze on his back, and scrape the scabs off that I could. That’s where I started out. Today I do ride along's with one of our local vet clinics. Now I get to do post mortems on cows, castrate calves, and do pre purchases on horses, look for arthritis in horses’ legs, and much more hands on.

I’ve always loved blood and guts, but twelve years of medical school wasn’t for me. I was able to take a first responder course and get certified in October of 2010. Since then I follow up with once a month refresher medical classes through the fire department. This fall I hope to get my EMT.

Skiing has been a large part of my life living in the mountains. I knew how to ski before I knew how to walk. Later I joined the freestyle program at a ski club we have. I started competing in small competitions around Colorado. When I stopped competing because it wasn’t for me, the director of the program asked if I wanted to be the club’s first coach in training. Three years later I was an assistant coach, and next thing I knew, I had my own group as a ski coach. I wear climbing harness with no legs, connected to a daisy chain with a carabineer on the chair lift. It acts like a seat belt in the event I would have a seizure on the chair, I wouldn’t fall off. The harness goes through the belt loops on my ski pants, I throw the daisy chain over the back of the chair and under, and then the carabineer connects to the harness. The group I teach knows how it works. At the beginning of each year, I tell the kids what epilepsy is, and what to do in the event I have a seizure. I give a lecture to the parents at the beginning of each year as well.

This past winter I did an internship with ski patrol. I loved how they took me out of bounds, under closed ropes, showed me avalanche areas, and did training with me. They taught me how to drive a toboggan and showed me the ropes.

It’s not what cards you are dealt; it’s what you do with the cards dealt to you.

You can find a solution, or become isolated. But you only live once, and you don’t want to ruin all the potential you have.

“The idea being to accept fully what you are.”

~ Mattox

Outdoor Mindset

is a great example of living life to its fullest despite having a neurological disorder. Still using a safe environment, this organization is just one of many that shows you can still lead an active lifestyle, pursue your dreams, and be an everyday person, while living with epilepsy or another neurological dis-order. It gives those who are isolated a chance to be “normal”, whatever “normal” means… Don’t waste talent or any goal for that matter, because I guarantee there is a solution that allows you to keep your hopes up.

- Channing Seideman, almost-18 (yes, that's right, just 18)

Now who wants to talk about limits? Let this story remind us that there are no limits in life, just obstacles we need to work around and dominate.

Learn more about Channing’s continued story and success in overcoming her epilepsy here.

Outdoor Mindset

can be there to help with this journey every step of the way.

Over and Out,

j

Field of Dreams - Website Update

For just over year we've been focused and moving towards building an enhanced Outdoor Mindset website program engine. You might be saying, "Engine, what are you talking about engine, I thought this was about the website?" Well, let me explain a bit more. We on the board look at the website as much more than a static thing that people may come to visit, look at and move along. Our primary focus is to create and foster successful and life enhancing matches between guides and travelers and we see the website 'engine' as a way to bring this to a large group which scales well as interest and participation grows.

As you can see with our current site, we do have an 'engine' which is helping our organization accept new guides and travelers into the OM family. Our next big initiative is to enhance the 'engine' through the use of the Force.com (salesforce.com) platform which has been donated to us by salesforce.com. The new platform will allow us to streamline data gathering for guides, travelers, volunteers and those who support OM through their generous donations. The matching of guides and travelers will still take place at the hands of our experienced staff volunteers but the information will live in one place, allowing us to streamline the flow of data and to provide efficiencies in the way we run the organization.

We are in the RFP gathering phase and have quotes from some very qualified vendors who specialize in implementing salesforce.com for non-profit groups like OM. They will be assisting us with the build out and customization of the salesforce.com platform. In the coming months we'll be migrating to this new salesforce.com 'engine' and through this we expect to be delivering more to our guides and travelers on behalf of those wonderful folks who have donated funds to OM.

Thank you all for your continued support of OM.

Chris Boyd

I HEART CURRY (and the brain benefits of Turmeric!)

It was brought to my attention while I was slaving in the kitchen cooking my first Curry, that “Turmeric is good for your brain”. Wow! I know science, doctors, surgeries, scans, tests and more tests could be helpful in fixing F’ed up brains, but could my little Curry recipe help as well?

As everyone knows (from my two blog posts which both happen to be cooking and recipe related- humm) I love to cook! I cook for Brian and I, but cooking for a crowd & entertaining is even more fun! Last week I decided to take the plunge into international waters and test of my first home made curry- from scratch I might add.

I will have to admit it was a little more involved that I had originally anticipated. Step One: Make the Curry Sauce, then add the other sauce ingredients & Turmeric, plus don’t forget to marinate the chicken tikka, (ooops). But in the end after making 3 different pages of recipes for one dish- it finally made it onto the plate at 9pm! (Thanks for your patience boys). I am proud to report; all of my dinner party guests were a part of the clean plate club . . . after their second helping of course.

Post dinner conversation, I was very intrigued on the health benefits of the Turmeric I had just added in my curry and why it was good for the brain. Can we include things in our diet to prevent future disease and promote brain health?

Turmeric derived from the plant Curcuma longa, is a gold colored culinary spice, a major ingredient in Indian curries, the source of American mustard's bright yellow color and a relative of ginger (I learn something new every day). Curcumin, which gives the yellow color to turmeric, was first isolated almost two centuries ago, and its structure as diferuloylmethane was determined in 1910. Since the time of 1900 BC, numerous therapeutic activities have been assigned to turmeric. Curcumin exhibits activities similar to recently discovered tumor necrosis factor blockers - which is just what we are looking for! Tumor Blockers for that puncus uncus! Evidence suggests this spice is a promising preventive agent for a wide range of diseases, probably due largely to its anti-inflammatory properties. After my little research session, the bottom line is that the advantages of turmeric (and more specifically Curcumin) are too numerous to list! An overview published in Advanced Experimental Medical Biology in 2007 states that, "Curcumin has been shown to exhibit antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, and anticancer activities and thus has a potential against various malignant diseases, diabetes, allergies, arthritis, Alzheimer's disease and other chronic illnesses." That is the most “anti” ingredient I have ever used in my kitchen!

Looks like I will be making lots more Indian Curries in my lifetime. They promote “anti” everything! Did my little Curry recipe help us build better brain health? I think so.

Spring! A season for learning new languages…

I recently started the last term of my first year of medical school. Our new course directors reminded us of two medical school analogies:
1) Medical school is similar to drinking from a fire hose. The material in essence is not the difficulty; it is the rate at which we have to learn the material.
2) Medical school entails learning new languages. In other words, we are barraged with not only new information but words we have never heard before and have no idea how to pronounce.

I am finding the course directors credible. In three weeks and in only one course (neuroscience), we have learned about generating and propagating action potentials, what happens at the synapses, the topographic anatomy of the brain and spinal cord, the vasculature of the brain, the blood brain barrier and how the brain makes cerebral spinal fluid, the morphogenesis of the brain, the organization of the brainstem, glial biology, how the somatosensory system works and audition. Ummmm…what was that you ask? Yes, spring has arrived and it is my season for learning new languages and new information! So, while I learn about the telencephalon, funiculi, and sensory homunculus, I thought I would share a few interesting tidbits with you:

• Did you know the brain develops from a tube? It’s why we have spaces or “ventricles” in our brain around which lies the cerebral cortex and brainstem. Brain development starts early on for the fetus – around the third week and before one might even know she is pregnant.
• The brain weighs around three pounds yet receives almost 20% of total cardiac output. One fifth of the blood that our heart pumps goes to the brain!
• We have around 1,000,000,000,000 neurons in our brain and each one can communicate with multiple other neurons so that the information it sends on is the sum of many inputs. Our brain is complex!
• We have cells in our inner ears called outer hair cells that change their lengths based on electrical signals generated originally by sound and protect our ears from damage. Check out this video (and yes – this is the cell dancing to music)! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo9bwQuYrRo.

As spring announces itself, I hope you all enjoy lots of time outdoors and take advantage of the vegetables coming into season. After all, we can’t forget to nourish our brains and bodies! Check out our friend Kristin McCurdy’s new food blog at http://daysfork.com/. Not only does she have an outdoor mindset, but she also is a kick-butt chef who has spent years getting dirty on organic farms. No one can make salads like her (yeah – delicious and she has yet to bring the same salad to a dinner I have been to with her). Kristin posts other recipes too (and when our classmate Brooks brings leftovers to class, we all salivate).

Here’s to spring and nourishing our minds and bodies with good food, the outdoors and new languages!

Thanks to you

So as you all know by now, OM is in the middle of our huge March Madness event to raise as much money as possible in March through all sorts of creative activities. We've got a big Adventure Race, a couch potato-thon, a mustache growing event, the list goes on. Jill and I talked over and over about what we wanted to do. We tossed around the idea of running a marathon but decided that it might be a tad ambitious given the fact that we were both averaging about a mile a day. We decided a 5K might be a better place to start!

Next, we had to decide which 5K to run. Being the procrastinators that we are, we waited until about April 31st to get on the computer and really search one out. By this time our options were slightly limited. Out of the 5 available in March, we could both attend 2 of them. There was one that started at a bar and ran around the side streets of Denver, and then there was the "Stop TB" Trot. Although the bar run had its own unique advantages, we collaboratively decided that running for a good cause was more important to us. We also figured out that although Tuberculosis is mainly a disease of the lungs, it can also have strong impacts on the BRAIN as well. We were thrilled to figure this out and obviously excited about finally making a decision about our March Madness event.

Throughout the entire process of trying to find an event and then raise money for OM through these March Madness events, the best thing for me has definitely been receiving the feedback and support from so many people. I mean, the grueling training has been great too, but the enormous amount of people who have come out and shown their interest in OM has definitely been the best. I am constantly overwhelmed by how much care, interest, and support I receive from friends, family, and strangers when OM comes into conversations. At Outdoor Mindset meetings, we always talk about how great we think the things we come up with are, but we sometimes wonder how everyone else will feel? I must say that the feedback and support that I have received alone with my one event has been amazing. It confirms the fact that OM is on the right track and we really have something special going on here, and not just from the boards perspective, but from yours as well! So what I am trying to say is that Outdoor Mindset appreciates you! Thank you all for being who you are and supporting what you believe in. We are all so lucky to be a part of an organization that means something to us personally. It means so much to us that you are a part of OM too!