About Us > History

In the fall of 2004, the UrbanPromise Academy Outdoor Club began as an extracurricular activity for high school youth. Our stated purpose from the start was "to share our love, passion and curiosity for the outdoors through regularly scheduled field trips that would take us up close to God’s magnificent creation through nature and humanity. We seek to see God’s hand in all creation and to find our place and purpose within."

In October 2004, we took our first day trip to Cape May, New Jersey. We devoted that day to environmental stewardship, taking part with the New Jersey Audubon on a beach clean-up project. With binoculars in hand, we hiked the nature trails and looked for migratory raptors from the hawk watch platform.

Other trips included visiting the New Jersey Pine Barrens, canoeing the Wading River, visiting Whitesbog, where Elizabeth White first cultivated the blueberry.

We spent time at an alpaca farm, learning the toils and rewards of an agrarian way of life.

We journeyed to Valley Forge National Park and saw a reenactment of Washington's winter encampment of 1777.

In June of 2005 we had our first overnight camping experience on Assateague Island National Seashore. We set up a tent site and cooked our meals just up from the surf, in sight of deer and wild ponies. We canoed and kayaked the bay side of the island, paddling among mute swans, herons, egrets, and other waterfowl, along with many wild ponies feeding on sea grasses along the bay's shore.