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Recreation & Adventure
Experience together.
Connection doesn't always happen sitting around a table. Sometimes it happens halfway through a hike, on the water, during a workout, at a ballgame, or while trying something you've never done before. Recreation & Adventure creates opportunities for veterans, service members, and military families to get active, experience something new, and build genuine relationships along the way.
Why it matters
When the uniform comes off, veterans lose the daily physical structure and unit-level brotherhood that kept them alive. Fitness, movement, and time outdoors are among the highest-impact non-clinical interventions for veteran mental health - and Chicago has almost no year-round veteran-facing recreation infrastructure built for adults over 30.
Esprit runs veteran-designed adventures on the water, in the parks, and at the Muster - no-cost or low-cost whenever we can pull it off, and every event engineered as an on-ramp back to movement, purpose, and unit.
What we do
EDC does not need to own a gym, kayak fleet, campground, or professional sports team to create incredible experiences. We partner with organizations that already do these things well. Businesses provide space, expertise, equipment, and sponsorship. EDC brings participants, volunteers, community, and programming. Together we create experiences that might otherwise be inaccessible, expensive, intimidating, or simply unknown to veterans and military families.
Kayaking, hiking, climbing, camping, skiing, fishing.
Group workouts, competitions, challenges, races.
Games, practices, behind-the-scenes moments, veteran nights.
Yoga, recovery, mobility, recreation, outdoor wellness.
Businesses introduce veterans to experiences they may never have considered.
Partner categories
Recreation providers
Climbing gyms - CrossFit and fitness facilities - Kayaking outfitters - Outdoor outfitters - Ski resorts - Golf courses
Sports & entertainment
Professional sports organizations - Racing organizations - Museums and entertainment venues - Adventure companies
Wellness & the outdoors
Camping and outdoor organizations - Fishing organizations - Wellness and recovery providers
Recurring programs
Programming that puts Recreation & Adventure into practice year-round.
Signature programs
Free
All skill levels
Free paddles with Urban Kayak Chicago - all skill levels, veterans and military families welcome.
Flagship Event
Memorial Day 2027
Chicago's Memorial Day community fitness festival - nine heat divisions, nine signature experiences, one mission.
Standing with veterans
The companies, nonprofits, universities, and community organizations building Recreation & Adventure alongside the Foundation.
Build with EDC
If your business or organization has a facility, activity, expertise, equipment, or experience that could bring veterans together, let's build something.
Get involved
Volunteer under Recreation & Adventure, lead the pillar locally, or fund the work. Every door opens on the same mission.
Volunteer
Outdoor programming operates on volunteer safety leads, guides, and event support.
Lead
Pillar Team Leaders own the calendar, recruit the volunteers, and keep the work moving between events. If you can commit real time and want your fingerprints on something meaningful, this is the door.
Fund
Physical wellness, on our terms.
Underwrites the kayak outings, group workouts, and outdoor programming that keep veterans and military families connected through movement.
The other three pillars
