2023 Youth European Summer Trip

This summer young orienteers from both the National Team and the Youth Development Program will be embarking on a three week summer trip to Europe to take part in two major international orienteering events. The trip will run from approximately June 19th through July 10th.

First stop on the trip will be to the European Youth Orienteering Championships (EYOC) in Velingrad, Bulgaria. Since US Youth are not eligible for the EYOC Championships, they will participate in the concurrent EYOC Tour events June 23-25th.

From Bulgaria, the group will travel on to Baia Mare, Romania for the 2023 Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC) running from July 2-9th. Twelve US youth were recently selected to compete at JWOC this year. Non-JWOC youth will take part in the JWOC Tour races being held during the same period.

Plenty of opportunities for sightseeing and cultural activities will be built into the itinerary around the competition days as well as time to do what kids like to do – have fun… A series of fund-raising efforts are planned to help raise money to provide stipends to attending youth to offset travel costs for this trip.

First up will be this weekend at West Point! On Sunday, April 16th, juniors will be hosting a bake sale to raise funds for summer youth travel. Stop by to enjoy some delicious cakes and meet our talented juniors. They would also welcome (and appreciate!) any donations of baked goods. If you’re planning to bring any, please email Keegan at keegan@nullharkador.com to let us know.

There will also be a “Control Challenge” where donors can pledge a particular amount based on the number of controls youth participants visit over a fixed time period – April 17th – June 4th. Final details on the control challenge can be found on the National Team Blog.

You can also make a donation directly to support the Junior Summer Trip by using our secure donation form and pay by credit card, bank ACH or PayPal. The future of our sport depends upon youth and we thank you for supporting this amazing opportunity for our National Team and Youth Development Program youth to gain such valuable experiences in Europe this summer.

Below are a few photos from last summers youth excursions in Portugal and Switzerland.

Winter Training Challenge

Looking for that little bit of extra motivation for your winter training this season? Orienteering USA is excited to unveil a new peer-to-peer fundraising platform that will allow you to enlist family & friends to support your training and help advance orienteering by making donations on your behalf to Orienteering USA.

We make it simple by providing a platform to easily create a personal fundraising page, track your progress and process online donations in a secure fashion.

The Winter Training Challenge will run for three months from December 1st, 2020 through February 28th, 2021. Your personal challenge can span the entire 13-week period, focus on a smaller range of dates or target just a single event – the choice is up to you and your own goal setting. A few possibilities:

  • Weekly Mileage Goal – supporters can donate for each week you meet your personal goal
  • Streaker – challenge yourself to do some training every day over the challenge period
  • Controls Visited – how many training/event controls can you visit during these three months?
  • Enter a Fat-Ass style timed ultra – how many miles/laps can you do in a fixed time period?
  • Find more ideas here, here and here.

How to Build Your Own Custom Fundraising Page

  1. Visit the Winter Training Challenge Campaign Page
  2. Click the ‘Become a Fundraiser‘ button in the upper right
  3. Log-in with your Orienteering USA credentials
  4. Enter content for your custom Fundraising Page
    • Fundraising Page Title – use default
    • Fundraising Page URL – use default
    • Your Fundraising Goal – enter the dollar amount you would like to raise through your challenge
      • NOTE: leaving this blank will default to the overall campaign goal of $20,000
    • Current Photo – upload a personal photo for your fundraising page
    • My Page Content – Create a paragraph describing your personal challenge goals using the editing tools to get creative.
      • You can include additional photos and links to AttackPoint or Strava training logs so supporters can follow your activity.
  5. Click on the ‘Save‘ button. It is that easy!
  6. Click on the ‘View My Fundraising Page‘ button in the upper right to review your custom page.
    • Copy the URL from the browser address bar and share with family, friends and colleagues once you are satisfied with your page design.
  7. Happy Fundraising!!
Click on the image to view a typical Fundraising Page

How will funds raised be used?

All funds raised through the Winter Training Challenge will be designated as unencumbered funds and will be used to support Orienteering USA essential operations as well as national initiatives such as TeamUSA, Youth Mapping Program EventReg registration services for clubs, online training courses and much more. 

Orienteering USA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization so all donations are tax deductible!! Please note that your supporters can still donate to targeted OUSA initiatives such as TeamUSA through the standard donation portal, but such donations will not count toward the Winter Training Challenge campaign totals.