The Coyle Outside Foundation

A COMMUNITY BASED NON-PROFIT ARM OF COYLE OUTSIDE

About the Foundation

The Coyle Outside Foundation is a non profit (501c3) “wing” of Coyle Outside formed to improve the quality and scope of Outdoor experiential education and programming available in Benton County. The foundation shares the mission values of Coyle Outside and additionally commits to

Increased access to outdoor education/programming for local youth (through scholarship and outreach/partnership)
Establish and develop a site(s) where dedicated, immersive and overnight outdoor ed programming can occur regularly
Integrate experiential outdoor education further into conventional education experiences for all youth in the local area

And the foundation is committed particularly to stewardship of families and childhood as both face new and confounding conditions in modern times.

The Coyle Outside foundation is highly aligned with the national LetGrow.org organization and they provide regular content that we recommend looking into.

The Background

In 2020 Coyle Outside, which had historically been focused on Summer Camps and Fall/Spring Outdoor School programs throughout the state, began what was called OutSchool. This has grown and evolved over time to provide diverse afterschool, homeschool, toddler forest school, and adult and teen programs locally. Dozens of semester long and shorter offerings have been manifested and sustained as directly offered and partnered offerings (through Corvallis P&R). Additionally, this effort has been valuable in providing year round local employment for a portion of our instructor team. This has kept us doing interesting, valuable, and creative work ongoingly. Ultimately it became evident that re-organizing as a non profit would allow OutSchool to effectively and actively address issues we could not otherwise

Create a scholarship fund that offers donors charitable status
Recruit sponsors and partners available for tax deductible land and capital donations
Attract 501c3 targeted grant funds for youth programming to the local area
Optimize access to partnerships with schools and other organizations

If you want to make a tax deductible contribution to our scholarship fund please donate here.

If you would like to explore particular or distinct ways to be involved with COF as an educator, volunteer, sponsor or partnering organization please be in touch directly with Dan at 541-760-0774 or danielcoyle@hotmail.com.

Our goals for 2024/25 are to establish a working scholarship fund, improve/elevate curriculum and programming and begin searching for a site to create as a programming base camp.

Our Board Members

Jason Collver

Coyle Outside was founded in 2011 by Daniel Coyle and currently runs programs year round in Oregon and seasonally in Maryland, Washington, Colorado. Predominantly we create public/private partnerships with Parks and Recreation Departments and School Districts to provide Summer Camps, After School and Outdoor School Curriculum. We love opportunities to focus on towns, small cities and small to medium sized school districts where there is demand for quality outdoor programming and outdoor education but may not be resources locally to reliably meet the demand feasibly.

Jason Walsh

Jason brings a lifetime of outdoor experience to our Board. He got his start fishing and hunting the old school way -on foot - rambling the mountains, lakes and rivers of Alaska, learning from his Maidu and Alaskan elders how to be on the land. His work outside began with building trails, and cabins, and managing remote kayak camps. He then went on to work several years as a Park Ranger. After graduate school he went on to develop public land management practices for the State of Alaska that incorporated community and native voice into the decision making process. He has worked as an educator on public lands, the director of a state/federal

land organization, an international instructor on eco-tourism, a community forum leader, a native village liaison, and a wilderness guide. He recently started and serves on the board of the Matanuska Outdoor Institute in Alaska. While his work has been awesome it is his role primarily as a father of four and husband to one amazing woman that keeps him motivated and striving to do better everyday.

Daniel Coyle

Dan is a dedicated father and lives at Coyle Outside HQ with his family. He moved to Corvallis in 1994 and was part of the OSU research faculty (Biology) before starting what ended up being a career of working outdoors with youth in 1999. He is the owner/operator of Coyle Outside and founded COF as a way to further his dream of providing a substantial positive impact for youth in the local community while also creating an organization where additional connection and community can be formed. Dan grew up in New Jersey and attended Cornell University where he graduated with a degree in Genetics. In Corvallis he is

on the board of Team Dirt through which he leads volunteer trail building events in the college forest. He has lived in his van, tanned roadkill, won his high school science fair , gotten patents, been punched in the face and been wrong a ton of times ;). Dan is immensely fortunate to have ended up with in a position to make the difference there is from running Coyle Outside and leading COF. He’s learned to value responsibility, character and service and hopes to help keep childhood off the endangered species list.

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I have lived in the Corvallis community for over 25 years, including raising our two daughters, now adults, with my husband, Lonnie. With a BS in Marine Science and a MS in Science Education, the past 24 years have been spent in K-12 education with sixteen of those years as a middle school science teacher. Although I taught in "traditional" public school classrooms, I appreciated the value of getting students outdoors whether to make nature observations, engage in "playground physics", or to build classroom culture. Later, as the coordinator of a local district's outdoor school program, spring was a highlight when we took over 600 6th-grade students outside and I witnessed many students feeling connected and experiencing success in ways which seldom happen within the confines of a school

building. As both a parent and an educator, many of my fondest memories are of children having the most authentic learning experiences while adventuring, exploring, and being curious about the natural world that surrounds them. I am excited to help Coyle Outside expand their offerings so all students have the opportunity to engage in experiential learning on a more regular basis, and not be limited to one week in 5th or 6th grade.

Location

Coyle Outdoors

PO Box 2389

Corvallis, Oregon 97333

COYLE OUTSIDE

EXPERIENTIAL OUTDOOR PROGRAMS

Contact

coyleoutside@gmail.com

1 (541) 760-0774