{"id":12558,"date":"2017-12-12T13:10:53","date_gmt":"2017-12-12T20:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/?p=12558"},"modified":"2017-12-12T13:10:53","modified_gmt":"2017-12-12T20:10:53","slug":"honoring-a-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/2017\/12\/honoring-a-legacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Honoring A Legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

A year after suffering a tragedy, the Kellogg family found some solace in helping Colorado College students enjoy\u00a0 <\/span>life-changing outdoor experiences.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1993, they started the Ritt Kellogg Memorial Fund, which enables CC students to develop and lead a responsible, unsupervised wilderness expedition in Canada and the United States. It\u2019s a unique college program that empowers students to take the next step in their development both personally and in their outdoor and management skills. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt would have been very easy to tell CC to buy a bunch of backpacks, but the Kellogg family wanted to do more than that,\u201d says fund co-founder Colby Coombs \u201989<\/b>, who survived the Alaska avalanche that killed Ritt Kellogg \u201990<\/b>, pictured above, left, and friend Tom Walter. \u201cPeter Kellogg wanted to do something that would honor Ritt\u2019s passion for the outdoors and give individual students a chance to do something they had never done before. To CC\u2019s credit, they let us do it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The more than 320 grant recipients since 1993 have shown their gratitude with a handwritten letter to the family detailing their experience and how it affected them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very common for students coming back to describe it as life changing, which was the intent the Kellogg family had,\u201d board member Dan Crossey \u201974<\/b> says. \u201cThey want to give them the chance for a possible once-in-a-lifetime experience.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The criteria have changed over the years with the expe<\/span>ditions now limited to Canada and the United States \u2014 more familiar areas for the board. It doesn\u2019t minimize the effect on students\u2019 lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they did by creating something out of such a tragedy that brings people together is awesome,\u201d board chair John Thomson \u201975<\/b> says. \u201cNot only does it provide money for the students to take these life-changing trips, but the way the family honors his legacy is also amazing and inspiring.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That personal development is why so many alumni give back as advisors. The experience often becomes the basis of lifelong friendships.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the close of my freshman year I hopped in a car with three new friends and headed north to the Bridger Teton Wilderness,\u201d Fiona Haslett \u201915 says. \u201cNone of us had ever headed into the backcountry without expert leaders or someone else who was in charge. Over the course of the trip as we navigated treacherous river crossings, navigational confusion, and food rations, our friendship blossomed and these three girls have become my closest friends to this day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The life-changing nature of the experience is evident when the students return, Crossey says. It reminds alumni of their own growth and motivates them to remain involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter being involved with the Ritt Fund for more than 20 years, the passion still burns bright,\u201d Mangat says. \u201cI enjoy seeing the new crop of students each year, learning about their adventures, and seeing how these experiences impact their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A year after suffering a tragedy, the Kellogg family found some solace in helping Colorado College students enjoy\u00a0 life-changing outdoor experiences. In 1993, they started the Ritt Kellogg Memorial Fund, which enables CC students to develop and lead a responsible, unsupervised wilderness expedition in Canada and the United States. It\u2019s a unique college program that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":952,"featured_media":12509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[84],"tags":[48],"class_list":["post-12558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-winter-2017","tag-athletics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/files\/2017\/12\/CC-BUL-WIN17-09-RittPhoto2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/952"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12558"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12770,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12558\/revisions\/12770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}