We're Back!

Hey everyone!

As you can see, The Appalachian Pineapple experienced a bit of a hibernation period over the last few months. But, we’re back! I promise to try to keep you all updated as frequently as possible with what’s happening around Morgantown, how life is here at Adventure WV, and much, much more!

On that note, if you have an event you know about or are organizing in the Morgantown or Greater Morgantown area (or even Pittsburgh), tell us about it! You can submit an event to our Appalachian Pineapple Calendar, which is available on the Adventure WV website. Click the following link to view the calendar or to submit an event: http://goo.gl/gp76TE

Now that the fall semester is in full swing (nearly over, really!), we no longer have our amazing summer media interns around to keep our blog up and running. Everyone in the office misses them and their creative brains! But, that’s also how I got the opportunity to share my voice through this blog. I’m Olivia, and this is my first day writing to you via The Appalachian Pineapple from the Adventure WV Office! I’ve been involved with Adventure WV since I was a freshman, and I even met my best friend on our Explore WV trip. Little did I know, I’d be leading an outdoor orientation trip and working for Adventure WV just a year later! I’ve done a bit of everything within our program; I worked logistics (getting food, gear, and tons of other things ready for over twenty trips), led the Habitat, Odyssey, and Explore Outdoor Orientation Trips, and facilitated Challenge Course programming. Each school year, I take to the Adventure WV Office’s couch (there’s only a few desks in here) and help out with whatever our full time staff needs.

That's my Explore 3 crew from this summer! Meet Nick, Ali, Angie, Tyler, and me. 

This year, I’m so excited to get to work with Matt and help out with social media, marketing, and advertising. Matt is basically a badass climber man who also is incredible at capturing photos and video. You should get to know him if you ever have the chance. Anyway, although I do other things around the office like filing, helping our sassy and wise Office Administrator, Kelly, with registrations and answering emails, and doing a variety of other miscellaneous tasks, I think that writing and social media management has been my favorite part of my job so far! I do my best to find thought-provoking and entertaining content from all over the internet and then post it to our Facebook and Twitter (@Adventure_WV) pages. Check those pages out and let me know what you think! J What would you like to see posted on our social media places?

To update you all, here are some things that have happened this semester in the world of Adventure WV:

• ·      Our Program Director, Marion, just gave birth to a baby girl, Ila! Congratulations to her, her hubby, and her new little family!
• ·      We’re currently preparing for our first international trip of the school year, Adventure WV: Patagonia. Over winter break, WVU students will participate in all kinds of outdoor activities, gain college credits, and experience the culture of Patagonia, Chile.
• ·      In November, Adventure WV hosted the Reel Rock Film Tour, an event that brought the best climbing and adventure films of the year to Morgantown!
• ·      We met lots of new, fascinating people through interviews and information sessions, and selected our 2014 Adventure WV Student Staff.
• ·      The WVU Challenge Course added a new component: a canopy tour! Many people have gotten to zip through the trees since the Canopy Tour’s opening in the spring.

And maybe my favorite statistic of the year: Adventure WV had 527 students on our Outdoor Orientation Trips this past summer! We hope all of them had as much fun as we did.

I hope you enjoyed the brief update! I can’t wait to share more fun content and thoughts, updates on the world of Adventure WV, and events in Morgantown with you soon.

Oh, and good luck to everyone on finals! Go play in the outdoors on a study break.

J Olivia