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An Important Message From Claire

Dear Beloved Loppet Community – 

There is only one word that can really encapsulate how I feel about the Loppet and that is love. I love the Loppet. I love this community. I love Theodore Wirth Park. I love being a part of something so much bigger than a leader or one person or a group of people – but a whole community committed to connecting people to one another and the outdoors. I love it all so much.

The only thing that could pull me away from this place and this work are my other loves – my family. My partner accepted a job in February in Washington DC that requires her to be there full-time and I will be moving there to be with her and our family in the fall. I am officially submitting my resignation as Executive Director of the Loppet. My last day at the Foundation will be September 3, 2024.  

I started my journey in the Twin Cities over 20 years ago here at the Loppet and I will leave the Twin Cities from the Loppet. And that just feels right – because there is no other space and no other community I could believe in more. Leaving you is one of the most difficult decisions I have ever made. But I am just one loud (maybe even a little too loud some would say) supporter of the Loppet. I just was lucky enough to spend a few brief and wonderful years here in this sacred park as your companion on the journey to making the outdoors a more just and joyful place for all.

Any progress that has been made over the past several years has been made because of the Loppet staff, volunteers, and board. They have been the greatest group of humans to work alongside and I cannot thank them enough for the work they have done aligning our work with our values. They are magic. I look forward to supporting them through the fall as the search for a new Executive Director begins and I will be forever grateful to have been a part of this incredible team.

There is not a moment when I walk into the Trailhead or out onto the trails at Wirth and am not struck with the beauty and the grace and the possibility of the healing that happens when there is a collective experience of the outdoors. I do believe it has the power to change us all for the better. It has changed me. And now – more than ever – it is absolutely what this weary world needs.

Love each other and spend all the time you can outside. I will see you on the trails.

Love, 

Claire