National Geographic has announced the 2014 Adventurers of the Year, whose extraordinary achievements in exploration, adventure sports, conservation or humanitarianism have distinguished them in the past year.
The only kayakers amongst this year’s 13 honorees are Amy and Dave Freeman, founders of Wilderness Classroom, who completed a three-year, 11,700-mile journey by kayak, canoe, dogsled and foot around North America in April 2013. The trip, dubbed the North American Odyssey, was just the latest expedition undertaken by the Minnesota couple for the Wilderness Classroom Organization (WCO), a non-profit that creates curriculum for some 85,000 grade school children via its website and school assemblies.
Online voting for the People’s Choice Adventurer of the Year is now open and runs through Jan. 31, 2014. To learn more about each adventurer through photos, interviews and a video and to vote every day for the People’s Choice Adventurer of the Year, go to http://adventure.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/adventurers-of-the-year/2014/. The adventurer with the most votes at the end of the voting period will be announced in February as the 2014 People’s Choice Adventurer of the Year.
Read more about the Freeman’s North American Odyssey in the Summer/Fall 2013 issue of Adventure Kayak
