In 2017, we were over the moon to be able to launch the Adventure Queen Grant – our little way of supporting members of our community to set out on their first big adventure. We are delighted to be able to offer it again for it’s 6th year!
THE ADVENTURE QUEEN GRANT
The Adventure Queen Grant supports three intrepid women to take on a human-powered, boundary-pushing, life-changing adventure through providing funding, kit and mentoring. One of our grant spots is allocated to a women wanting to use their proposed adventure to connect with nature as part of our Jessi Tucker Memorial Grant.
Jessi was our longest serving Adventure Queens Volunteer – working closely with our founders to make this amazing community what it is today. She was a woman with many talents – a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society with a range of expeditions under her belt: a poet; an emergency medicine doctor; an award-winning writer and to us, a real champion of the Adventure Queens. Jessi was a great lover of nature – she rests under a beautiful oak tree in Surrey.
This year three our winners will receive:
- £750 worth of kit from the epic Eddie Bauer
- £700 cash to spend on their adventure (flights, kit, jelly babies – whatever they need)
- a legendary backpack from Osprey
- a premium subscription and training from the lovely folks at Komoot
- An AQ mentor who will guide, support and cheerlead!
In addition to the above prizes the winner of our Jessi Tucker memorial grant will win a one year subscription to the Adventurous Ink book club.
This year the wonderful Nicky Sprosen (Hiking Highs) is also offering one of our winners a 1-to-1 navigation day to help them develop those all important nav skills.
2022/23 WINNERS
We had almost 200 applications for the 2022/23 Adventure Queen Grant (a MASSIVE thank you to those that applied as well as our panel of judges!).
Drum roll please….
We are thrilled to introduce our three wonderful winners:
Vicky Moynihan
Rusty hills, green night skies and golden leaves, Vicky will cross the Arctic with a bike and a sketch pad. Specifically she will bikepack from Rovaniemi, the capital of Finnish Lapland, to Alta, a Norwegian town on the edge of the Arctic Ocean. Taking mostly gravel roads, she will cover 610 km over 10 days.
Jo Milborrow
Nightwalking – a journey through darkness. Jo will solo walk from coast to coast across England, walking each night and camping during the day. Jo wants to raise awareness of the fear women have of being alone in the dark, to explore why that is and find some tools and tips to journey through it.
Natasha Sones
Our first paddlesports winner, Natasha is planning a multi-day solo paddleboarding trip in Finland. Starting in Helsinki she will explore the Eastern archipelago around the city which comprises 330 islands. As a mother of children with additional needs, Natasha SUPs for her mental health and finds being on the water brings her peace.
We’ll be sharing more info on Vicky, Jo and Natasha’s plans and adventures on our Facebook group, Instagram and blog over the coming month so stay tuned!
THE 2023/24 ADVENTURE QUEEN GRANT
If you missed out on applying for the 2022/23 Adventure Queen Grant, or applied and didn’t get through, don’t let that deter you! We’ll be launching the 2023/24 Adventure Queen Grant later this year, for the next group of badass women looking to kick start a big adventure in 2024. So, start brainstorming (think human-powered, self-supported) and keep your eyes peeled for more information!
