Growing Up With MEC

Leanne Allison is an accomplished adventurer and filmmaker. She’s also a former MEC employee (I was lucky enough to go on a group sea kayak trip with her back in those days). She, her partner Karsten, and their son Zev are all MEC Envoys. At MEC’s Annual General Meeting, Leanne will be showing some of her inspiring pictures as part of her presentation on “Growing Up With MEC.” I caught up with her for a sneak preview.

So what does the title mean?

Like all good titles, it has multiple meanings. It’s not just about how we’ve used MEC gear throughout our lives (although we certainly have). One interpretation is the vital role that MEC as an organization has played in our lives. In 1998, MEC gave me a four-month leave of absence to start a 3,400km journey from Yellowstone to the Yukon. That was a life-changing experience. My perspective on the mountains was completely recalibrated. Prior to that, I’d seen them mostly as a personal playground. Now I see them as teeming ecosystems and homes for wildlife moving up and down the continent. So that experience was very much about the growth of my awareness and consequently, it shaped my values.

MEC also helped sponsor our Being Caribou trip, where we spent five months walking with 123,000 caribou from their wintering grounds to where they calve and back. As we advocated for protecting that herd, we grew ever more aware of the power of storytelling in getting people to understand and be motivated to get involved in issues.

And other meanings?

Most recently, MEC contributed clothing and equipment to our Finding Farley adventure. We’d become parents by then, so more growth for us. And Zev was only two and a half when we started, so he did a lot of “growing up with MEC” in a pretty literal way during that five-month trip. And he’s continued to do so since then. He’s been on big mountain trips and lots of canoeing adventures.

One of the things that delights me on these trips is how Zev isn’t just along for the ride; when we’re all out there, he owns it – it’s very much his own journey, and very much growth on his part.

These days we do a lot of canoe trips with other families. That brings us closer with our own family and to other families. It helps us find and create what Farley taught us to think of as our tribe. Growing a community and a sense of belonging is a really important interpretation of Growing Up With MEC. There are more, but you’ll just have to come to the AGM to find out what they are.

MEC’s AGM is your chance to meet Leanne, hear about how MEC is doing, and tell your Board Of Directors what’s on your mind. If you can’t make it in person, you can catch Leanne’s presentation and the rest of the AGM via webcast.