MAC 2024 Annual Recap!

Looking back at 2024, we want to highlight our accomplishments and also thank you to our volunteers!

Here’s what MAC was doing in 2024:

• Hosted 9 Adopt a Crag events at 8 different locations
  • 111 total attendees across the 9 events
  • 343 total volunteer hours
• Assisted with 7 Unmatched Athlete events
  • 6 climbing days at Movement Rockville where kids 5-18 came to climb with Movement staff as well as MAC members and MAC volunteers
  • 1 day for their Union Collective Pride fundraiser event held at Movement Hampden
• Worked heavily on a climbing proposal in coordination with the AAC and Access Fund, to hopefully reopen climbing to a closed area in our region. More to come in 2025 on this.
• Held a fall email sponsorship drive with MAC leadership to get sponsors for our fall season. Thank you to Organic Climbing and Access Fund for providing incredible giveaway items for our Adopt a Crag raffles!
• Purchased an insurance policy to allow us to host 2 climbing events per year alongside Adopt a Crag events. We held our first climbing event this past fall with Soul Trak at Great Falls.
• Leadership has been continuing to build relationships with land managers, parks, new park rangers, and other organizations to continue to plan events for 2025 and beyond.

Shoutouts & thanks!

We also want to thank various organizations/gyms/companies for their support this year:

• DC Bouldering Project for sponsoring 2 of our events and providing breakfast
• Sportrock for their Earth Day sticker fundraiser and Dynos & Desserts fundraiser
• Organic Climbing for their sponsorship and donation of raffle items
• Gunks Apps for donations from guidebook purchases (and the guidebook authors who opt to donate proceeds to us!)
• Kaya for donations from guidebook purchases (and the guidebook authors who opt to donate proceeds to us!)
• AAC for their help with the climbing proposal we are working on

Looking forward to 2025

Going into 2025, some may feel uncertain about what is in store for the environment, outdoor recreation areas, and climbing access. MAC and members are part of a broader regional and nationwide community of outdoor recreation stewards and advocates. Access Fund recently noted a couple of huge wins including the passing of the Protecting America’s Rock Climbing Act (read more here). We will continue our local work but can always use all of the help we can get. If you haven’t gotten involved with us yet, keep an eye out for volunteer opportunities this spring. We also are always looking for help with Adopt a Crags, our website, gym tabling, grant writing, sponsorship requests, and more. If you are interested in a leadership position please reach out!

For 2025, we look forward to hosting Adopt a Crags around the region, progressing on various access issues, moving to a larger storage unit that will allow us to expand our inventory, doing another sponsorship drive to continue to provide raffle items at our events, hosting two climbing events, and more.