PA Wilds Center releases 2020-21 Bi-Annual Report online

The nonprofit PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship, Inc. (PA Wilds Center) has released its Bi-Annual Report for 2020-21, detailing some of the regional nonprofit’s top achievements over the two year calendar period.

As the 2020-21 report coincides with the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, some of those accomplishments included the following: publishing a Facebook live interview series, Wilds Are Working: Rural Entrepreneurs in Uncharted Times, that paid small rural businesses $250 to share pivots and reopening strategies; conducting outreach to the WCO to better understand the impacts of the pandemic on small businesses in the PA Wilds, the results of which were published in a white paper, Early Impacts of COVID-19 on the Rural Pennsylvania Wilds Initiative; and hosting the online PA Wilds Makers Market, which featured live business spotlights, including demonstrations or tours, pre-recorded videos, and live posts and interactions with business owners.

From September 2021 through April 2022, PA Wilds Center was the lead applicant in charge of the PA Wilds proposal for the national Build Back Better Regional Challenge (BBBRC). This grant request would have brought a transformative $50M to the Wilds and helped accelerate regional outdoor recreation infrastructure projects and related small business development. 

“Our organization pivoted to try to make this investment happen for rural PA – as we saw it as a once in a lifetime opportunity to tackle all these big outdoor recreation projects in a collaborative way all in one short period,” said Ta Enos, Founder + CEO of the PA Wilds Center.  “A lot of good came out of being a finalist. But the application period happened to coincide with the period when our small staff would have normally been producing our bi-annual report, so we put the project on pause. Despite the delay in publishing the report, we are so proud of the work that we completed in those first two years of the pandemic.”

This is the first time the PA Wilds Center has released its annual report only online at PAWildsCenter.org/about-us.

The nonprofit looks to reduce waste and its environmental impact by distributing the report electronically going forward. It is in the process of moving to a traditional annual report format to provide more frequent updates to regional stakeholders as well.

Earlier this year, PA Wilds Center released a brief “A Look at 2022: PA Wilds Center impacts and program growth” as a step in that direction.

“‘A Look at 2022’ is not a formal annual report for last year, but we wanted to provide a quick snapshot of some metrics we think are important to our work,” said Abbi Peters, COO of the PA Wilds Center. 

The 2022 Annual Report is expected to be released later this year.

For more information, visit PAWildsCenter.org/about-us or click here to view the annual report as a PDF.

 

ABOUT THE PA WILDS

The Pennsylvania Wilds is a 13-county region that includes the counties of Cameron, Clarion, Clearfield, Clinton, Elk, Forest, Jefferson, Lycoming, McKean, Potter, Tioga, Warren, and northern Centre. The PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship, Inc., is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to integrate conservation and economic development in a way that inspires the communities of the Pennsylvania Wilds. The PA Wilds Center promotes the region as a premier outdoor recreation destination as a way to diversify local economies, inspire stewardship, attract investment, retain population and improve quality of life. The PA Wilds Center’s core programs seek to help businesses leverage the PA Wilds brand and connect with new market opportunities, including: the Wilds Cooperative of PA, a network of over 300 place-based businesses and organizations, and the PA Wilds Conservation Shop, a retail outlet primarily featuring products sourced from the WCO. For more information on the PA Wilds Center, visit www.PAWildsCenter.org. To learn more about the WCO, visit www.WildsCoPA.org. Explore the PA Wilds at www.PAWilds.com. Find regionally made products at www.ShopThePAWilds.com

 

Media Contact

Britt Madera | Communications Manager

PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship, Inc.

[email protected] | 570-948-1051

 

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