RVIA’s Emerging Leaders Coalition launched a park improvement initiative earlier this year to encourage more volunteer projects to take place nationwide.
The coalition’s recent park improvement effort took place Oct. 27 at Lake Fairfax Park in Fairfax, Virginia. Led by RVIA Senior Manager of Government and Political Affairs Samantha Rocci, an Emerging Leaders Coalition staff liaison, the project was the coalition’s first regional event.
RVIA team members and a park staff member gathered and bundled firewood for visiting RVers and cleaned up litter. The project was the next step in the coalition’s ongoing park improvement initiative, which began at Potato Creek State Park in May.
“We expanded the volunteer initiative as a way of encouraging RV industry companies to spearhead their own events across the country – large and small,” Rocci said. “We wanted to demonstrate that even smaller, less handy teams can participate and champion a project.”
The coalition hopes more RV industry leaders will emerge to champion similar park and campground restoration events across the nation, RVIA said.
“Having an industry-wide volunteer initiative has been a goal of mine since 2015,” said Michilah Grimes, Lippert’s director of corporate and community impact. “Creating positive, lasting change in our communities is not just about one company. Teamwork like this, within the industry, was an untapped resource until the park improvement initiative launched in May 2022. We are excited to see where this continues to take the industry partners and the communities we are blessed enough to be able to serve together.”
“Between the two events so far, we have a great proof of concept of what our industry can do to give back to our camping and outdoor communities across the country,” said Mike Gaeddart, Coachmen Catalina GM. “We are really hoping to see some more ‘champions’ step forward with some project ideas of their own that we can help bring to fruition.”
Companies interested in spearheading a volunteer effort can contact Rocci at [email protected], Gaeddart at [email protected] and Grimes at [email protected].
