Today we’d like to introduce you to Grant Boatwright.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My father established in me the love of the outdoors, stewarding it well, and allowing it broaden our horizons from an early age. In college at Texas A&M I transitioned out of May’s business school and went into the Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Sciences degree program. While still utilizing a business minor, this allowed me to marry my childhood passion with what I saw as a growing need in our world, and especially American youth. The need to find balance, grow in all aspects of life (spiritual, physical, and nutritional), and give back to your community while continuing to personally flourish. I was given the opportunity to flesh out the rough ideas of what this program would like in my senior class, but had no clue how to get it started.
Thus the idea of Veritas Life Adventures was born, but I knew it would be a long road to see it manifest. I spent the next two years gaining experience, with the idea of utilizing a career in the Air Force, and its pension after 20 years, to start the program. However, in 2011, I got a phone call from my brother stating he had mentioned the idea of the program to an investor, who wanted to fund the program development and startup immediately.
To say the least, I was very hesitant. However, after many questions, and honestly trying to get the investor to say no because of the massive start up necessities, they said continued to say yes. I went straight to my officer recruiter, told him the situation, and because I had not been told a start date for my initial training, Veritas Life Adventures came into being. I put together the business plan, applied for my 501(c) 3 status, and was approved in 3 months. I took this as a sign I was headed in the right direction, and others saw the need as I did.
Therefore, in 2012 we took on our first group of 4 youth, put them through the program, culminating in our first backpacking trip to Wheeler Peak, New Mexico (the peak I had grown up climbing). We have the philosophy of working with a few to impact the many, or the exponential factor, and only take up to 12 youth a year. So over the next 6 six years we saw dozens of kids go through the program, graduate, and are continuing to progress in their lives and communities years later. We have evolved the program over the years, but the basic premise of working in depth with a few to impact the many, making the program length a full year (or more), and having them balance and progress in all areas of life has seen dramatic positive effects both individually with youth participants and their surrounding communities.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Thanks be to God, the first 5 years the program continued to coalesce and progress well. We saw 4 youth go through the program all 4 years of high school, graduate, and even continue to live out the program into college and jobs. However, as with all great endeavors, and life really, massive struggles and challenges arose. All non-profits by their nature face the constant need raise funds to see their missions fulfilled, and Veritas Life Adventures was no different. We knew the day was coming where we would need to be more self-sufficient and have alternative sources of revenue coming in to cover the cost of the program; and keep to our desire to have the financial burden off the youth participants and their families.
We were extremely close to implementing these plans, but in early 2017 our major donor was forced, yes forced, to stop giving based on greed and entitlement (the very things we are trying to combat). I found myself suddenly out of a full time position, scrambling to keep the doors open, and the youth in the program progressing. Thankfully, over the past 5 years, we had established a strong community of support, besides our large benefactor, and they were able to keep the bare program necessities funded.
This is why effective fundraisers, strategic partners, and alternative revenue sources are so important. While we weren’t able to implement most of the plans immediately, and I had to find/continuing to try and find a way to support my family. My faithful board and I have continued to push forward in any direction God has presented us and seen some movement in a positive direction start to occur.
We have established a recurring, successful, and popular fund raiser and community gathering called the Fort Worth Beer Mile. Over the past year I met, established, and come on staff with an expedition adventure company started by CEO David Gill, called 40/40 Adventures, and who you featured in a July article. This for profit Expedition Company has a similar mission and will give us a broader community base, help support us as one of their partnering non-profits, and even provide me a job to continue building my skills and leadership in outdoor education/trip leading. We already have our first trip booked with Warriors Keep, another local non-profit supporting our veterans by helping giving them opportunities to find a way forward through experiencing the outdoors, by having them summit Kilimanjaro with 40/40 Adventures.
Through building our community, continuing to find innovative ways to fund raise, allowing partnerships with synergistic missions to develop, and a lot of faith, we are seeing these struggles fought through one by one.
Veritas Life Adventures – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Veritas Life Adventures was established over 6 years ago and born out the desire to see balance, purpose, and a little bit of wonder infused into youths lives so they can flourish as contributing self-sustaining members of society. Our overarching mission is to provide youth with an unconventional, holistic experience that rejuvenates and reawakens the mystery and joy that comes from seeing and experiencing God. So many organizations and programs, which do a lot of good, still mainly focus one aspect of life and can miss out on bringing a balanced holistic picture to an individual’s lifestyle.
We attempt to accomplish this through a program that does the following:
Teaches, develops, and strengthens habits and practices of physical conditioning through varied outdoor activities such as hiking, team sports, yoga, rock climbing, etc.
Educates and develops a balanced nutritional lifestyle focusing on portion size, essential vitamins and minerals, and all-‐natural buying and food preparation.
Develops, encourages, and rejuvenates the spiritual, intellectual, and emotional states of participants, while guiding their search for truth.
VLA sets itself apart by our intentional, individual, and deeply personal ratio of mentors to youth participants, our 1 full year length program to fully establish lifestyle habits, and our balanced approach to the lifestyle changes across the three major aspects of life: Physical, Nutritional, and Spiritual. All these things attain an in depth, unique, and extremely effective program that produce continued results far beyond their year(s) in the program.
We also use our outdoor excursions as milestone markers, and practical application implementations, where the youth ‘seekers’, as we call them, get to break free of their bubbles they live in day in and day out. They are forced outside of their comfort zones, free of technology, and find out what truly lives inside them, what really drives them and makes them come alive, and do so in a progressively difficult environment. This is where the Veritas, or the truth, of their lives meets reality. They find out who they can truly become and what they can truly overcome. It is truly awe-inspiring and humbling to witness. I count myself truly blessed to see, be a part of, and help provide the atmosphere to see it accomplished.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
This is a tough one, as it does not follow any conventional markers. As a follower of Christ, His instruction and guidance determines not only how I conduct my relationships and business practices, but it also determines how I see success. While I want the non-profit to be, well, profitable and achieving its mission as effectively and efficiently as possible; it is more important the way I achieve this ‘success’ and the impact this ‘success’ leaves behind.
So for us at Veritas Life Adventures we measure our ‘success’ in how we love those who are in and around the program; that is, do they feel accepted and empowered to improve their three lifestyle aspect areas of physical, nutritional, and spiritual. Do our participants and mentors feel equipped and supported in their goals, how to achieve, and how to take that achievement and share it with their broader community around them. We are firm believers in the drastic impact a 1% change can have over a longer period of time.
Therefore, probably one of the milestones we use as a benchmark is seeing our ‘seekers’ maintain active participation through the full year of the program. This is done through weekly meetings, monthly excursions in a selected aspect area, goal accountability and tracking through our Veritas Life Adventures App, and culminating in our ‘conquering’ backpacking trip in the wilderness each year. On these trips they are given the chance to achieve their own ‘success’ milestones, like us reaching the summit of a Colorado 14ner, Mt. Harvard (14,423 feet).
We, of course, conduct exit surveys to see/hear how the program did in their individual lives along with live interviews with local business owners if the ‘seekers’ want to return for additional year in the program. Therefore, while our ‘success’ might be a bit harder to measure, the impact once witnessed in person cannot be denied.
Pricing:
- $300 per year, per seeker (covers personal gear needed to go on trips)
- Mentors can either personally sponsor or find a local sponsor (church) up to two seekers at $100 a month for 12 months.
- Sponsor a ‘Conquering Trip’ at $700 per seeker.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.veritaslifeadventures.com
- Phone: (817) 516-5206
- Email: info@veritaslifeadventures.com
- Instagram: veritaslifeadv
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VeritasLifeAdventures/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/veritaslifeadv
Image Credit:
JM Photography
Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
