Meet the Kindling Collective

queer-centered outdoor gear library and community

We caught up with Hallie, co-founder of the Kindling Collective, to hear what inspired the organization’s beginnings—and where it's headed next.

What’s your background and the story behind Kindling Collective?

In the fall of 2021, my partner Eva and I were burnt out from our jobs. On the weekends, we'd go hiking in the Whites as self care. I was in my 10th year of teaching and Eva was working in public health. As we hiked, we dreamed—if we could do anything, what would we want to do? Eva's first response to this question was that they'd want to be "P.E. teacher for adults." Eventually, this dream became a queer-centered outdoor gear library.

On each of our hikes, we grew this idea, and we started asking ourselves if we should bring it to life. In the summer of 2022, we made the scary choice to quit our careers and start working to launch Kindling. Eva brought their background in public health, project management, graphic design, and competitive sports coaching. I brought my experience guiding, working in outdoor (and indoor) education, and outdoor program management.

How did everything start, who helped bring it to life?

We were really lucky to get connected with the Outdoors Empowered Network (OEN) early on, and they helped us source gear for our gear library and connect with other gear libraries across the country.

Initially, we were planning to be a gear library that offered some queer outdoor programming. But, it quickly became clear that people really wanted queer community. Our first event, a queer cross country skiing day in early 2023, sold out within 48 hours. Now, in addition to running the gear library, we offer over 30 day and multi-day events per year. We're so grateful to our incredible local community for continuing to sign up for and attend these events.

Partnerships with local organizations (like Packraft Maine, Inclusive Ski Touring, Portland Gear Hub, the Nature Based Education Consortium, Tender Table, Confluence Collective, Maine GearShare—just to name a few!) have been key to broadening our reach and offering a wide range of outdoor programming.

Our volunteers are amazing, and the folks who sign up for programs are all rock stars. We feel incredibly lucky.

What’s something you and your team are especially proud of so far?

Through OEN, we got connected to Raquel Sapp of wilderness medicine education org Backcountry Pulse. In the past two years, we've worked with Raquel to train over 60 queer and BIPOC Mainers in wilderness medicine. This is such a cool partnership and we're so proud to offer low-barrier opportunities for community members to develop these essential skills.

How many folks have joined Kindling programs so far?

I just did this math in honor of our second birthday! Over 1400 people have joined our programs since early 2023.

Where do you see Kindling headed in the next year or two?

We're working on expanding our professional skills development offerings—for example, we're scheming with some other folks to offer a Maine Guide prep course for BIPOC and queer folks). We want to keep working to make all of our existing programming even better and stronger; finally, we're working on building capacity and funding to hire additional employees full time.

How can people get involved or support your work?

People can find our trip and event offerings here, and they can sign up to become gear library members here. You don’t need to be queer to be a member; you just need to be on board with supporting and affirming queer people’s access to the outdoors. Our work is funded through donations and grants; folks can help us keep doing what we're doing by donating.

Photos by: Lindsey Flicker and Ethan LaPlante-Dube