Building upon Protect Our Winters’ (POW) decade of climate leadership in the outdoor sports community, today the Protect Our Winters Action Fund (POW Action Fund) launches to make action on climate change a top policy priority for the outdoor sports community. POW Action Fund’s creation is timed to amplify the outdoor community’s voice going into the 2018 midterm elections and beyond.
“When it comes to climate change, we recognize that we are in the eleventh hour of an ‘all hands on deck’ situation. There are millions of us in the outdoor community and we’ve never been so fired up and ready to get to work,” said Jeremy Jones, Chair of the POW Action Fund. “With the POW Action Fund, we can funnel this vibrant energy and shared love of the outdoors into real action on climate change.”
The POW Action Fund will focus on helping all outdoor people become effective climate advocates by providing the training and tools needed to speak confidently to the issue, support legislation, ballot measures, and climate-friendly officials, who will make positive gains toward stabilizing our climate. As a 501(c)(4), the POW Action Fund may commit energy to lobbying and a portion of its activity to supporting political campaigns.
“There are nearly 150-million people in the U.S. who participated in an outdoor activity last year.1 That’s almost half of our population and a massive voting bloc,” said Mario Molina, Executive Director of the POW Action Fund. “Active, adventurous people know how to set goals and have the stamina to take on big challenges. With the POW Action Fund, we will be turning their passion into action with practical ways to get involved and truly make a difference on climate policy.”
In the upcoming midterm elections, the POW Action Fund’s primary goal will be to register voters through a non-partisan voter registration drive, and to provide voters with the tools they need to make informed decisions at the polls, while encouraging their friends and family to vote for candidates that support action on climate change. This October, the POW Action Fund will distribute voting guides that will identify climate-friendly candidates in gubernatorial and congressional races in 35 states. In addition, the POW Action Fund will target specific midterm elections in Colorado, Montana, Nevada and California’s 4th Congressional District, which follows the Sierra range from Lake Tahoe past Yosemite. These elections will benefit from expanded climate change education, voter registration efforts and get-out-the-vote programs.
Individuals and businesses who would like to join the POW Action Fund in taking action on climate policy can register to vote or confirm their registration, download voter guides and find local events by visiting https://powactionfund.org/#getinvolved. The POW Action Fund can also be found on Facebook (@POWActionFund), Instagram (@pow_action_fund) and Twitter (@POW_AF).
Founded in 2007 by iconic snowboarder Jeremy Jones, Protect Our Winters turns passionate outdoor people into effective climate advocates. Today the non-profit leads a large community of athletes, creative pioneers and forward-thinking business leaders to affect systemic political solutions to climate change. Protect Our Winters Action Fund, Protect Our Winters’ sister organization, will compliment POW’s current activities by working to make action on climate change a top policy priority for the outdoor sports community and electing climate champions.
1Outdoor Industry Association, Outdoor Participation Report 2017
