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Founded | 2001 |
---|---|
Founder | Brad Ludden |
Type | Nonprofit |
Focus | Humanitarian [1] |
Location | |
Area served | United States, Costa Rica, Peru, Vietnam, Patagonia, and Bali [2] |
Product | Outdoor adventures for cancer fighters |
Key people | Ryan O'Donoghue (Executive Director) |
Revenue | $1,906,780 (2012) [3] |
Employees | 11–50 [1] |
Website | FirstDescents.org |
First Descents (FD) is a charitable non-profit organization headquartered in Denver, Colorado. [4] Brad Ludden, a professional kayaker, founded First Descents in 2001. [5]
First Descents has served around 10,000 young adult survivors at over 1,000 programs nationwide. [6] First Descents has been recognized by CNN Heroes [7] and Outside magazine's Best Places to Work. [8]
When Brad Ludden was 12, and his 38-year-old aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer, he decided to volunteer at a local pediatric oncology program and teach kayaking. [9] In 2001, he started First Descents. [10]
In 2016, Ludden won the CNN Hero Award for his work with First Descents. [7] [11]
In 2020, First Descents expanded programming to serve healthcare professionals on the frontlines of COVID-19. [12] [9]
First Descents provides week-long and multi-day programs nationwide. [9] The programs offer climbing, paddling, and surfing. [13]
In 2011, First Descents offered 27 outdoor programs, and 283 people participated. In 2012, the number of outdoor programs grew to 45, and the number of participants was 515. [3] In 2013, First Descents ran programs in 12 states and three countries. [14]
First Descents founder Brad Ludden approached filmmaker Michael Brown, a three-time Emmy Award winner, about directing a documentary about Ludden's adventures with cancer survivors. [15] First Descents launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the documentary and raised $21,507. [16]
Ludden and 14 other young adult cancer survivors spent a week together in the outdoors. Brown filmed the adventures and interviewed the participants. [17] The film was released on April 14, 2012. [18]
When I found out about my friend Brad Ludden's organization, and that he was bringing cancer survivors into the wilderness for wilderness therapy in a setting where diagnosis didn't matter--chemotherapy wasn't the main topic of conversation--and since that time, we've been working on this film. So much has gone so well.