Julie and Tom on “why we stepped up to make one of the largest gifts we’ve ever made to a nonprofit.”

Julie Kim and Tom Stahl have been annual YES supporters since reading about the organization in a Jon Carroll SF Chronicle column in 2006. Tom is an award winning photographer, and together, he and Julie were inspired by YES's mission and focus, as they themselves love the outdoors and are avid hikers, backpackers, cyclists, kayakers and skiers. They started bringing their children along on backpacking trips before the kids could walk, and took annual family trips to Yosemite and YMCA Camp Jones Gulch. They've witnessed first-hand the sense of wonder and pure joy that children (and adults) get from spending time in nature, so when they heard that YES was raising funds to make more of this nature-magic happen in Richmond, they reached out to us to see how they could help.  Tom shared, 

“When I chatted with Eric, I was really struck by how YES has intentionally grown over the past 15 years. We knew they did camping programs and we were so attracted to that, but didn’t know as much about the care and thought they’ve put into their year-round education and advocacy work that is at the core of their leadership development programming. This is one of the reasons why we stepped up to make one of the largest gifts we’ve ever made to a nonprofit.”

We can’t thank Julie and Tom enough for their generous gift and their willingness to share their story with us!