A few weeks ago, a woman called Wendy walked into a state primary school on the Isle of Wight carrying 10 sets of The Outdoor Guide Foundation Waterproofs & Wellies.
Wendy Allford is the house manager at hf holidays’ Freshwater Bay Country House, which sits a short walk from this brilliant State Primary school in one of the UK’s most cherished destinations. She wasn’t there on behalf of a faceless corporate fund or a distant and disconnected head office; she was there because the community of walkers, members and guests who make hf holidays what it is had put money into something called the Pathways Fund…the Fund had found its way, as it tends to, to exactly the right place.
The school, Freshwater and Yarmouth CE Primary, uses its outdoor space every day for nature-based learning, gardening, and play. What it didn’t always have was enough kit to ensure every child could get outside on a wet, drizzly day. In the UK, roughly nine pupils in every class of 30 at a state primary school are living in poverty. For many of those families, a decent waterproof and a pair of wellies are simply out of reach. And so, on grey-sky days, some children sit at the window while others go out. It is one of those small injustices that, when you look at it clearly, is not small at all.
That day, 10 kits went in, and every child got out.
The UK’s only walking co-operative, creating meaningful connections in the great outdoors, since 1913.
HF Holidays and the Pathways Fund have just become a partner in that work, funding 100 kits across 10 schools, each located close to one of its country houses in England. It’s the kind of initiative that makes sense the moment you hear about it, and makes even more sense when you understand who HF Holidays are.
HF Holidays has been creating meaningful connections through shared experiences in the great outdoors since 1913. They are Britain’s only walking holiday co-operative, owned by their 40,000 members, operating 16 country houses in some of the most quietly spectacular corners of the UK. Now a B Corp-certified organisation, they remain dedicated to making a positive impact on the places they travel to. All the walk leaders are volunteers, and many have been part of the team for over 20 years! Their love of nature and personal investment in the co-operative mirror those of its founder, who believed that the countryside should belong to everyone, and that belief has never really left the organisation.
It was, in other words, only a matter of time before they found their way into the TOG community. And we’re glad they have!
Over the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing more about what HF Holidays does and where they go! The routes, the houses, the kind of walking holiday that leaves you feeling genuinely restored rather than simply tired. We’ll visit some of the places that have quietly welcomed walkers for over a century, and at some point along the way, there may be something in it for you, too.
But for now, we wanted to start where it mattered most. With Wendy and the wellies, and a school full of children who are getting outdoors, whatever the weather.
The walk that changes everything looks different for each one of us. For a child, it might be discovering that a rainy day is actually brilliant fun. For you, it might be remembering what it feels like to come back from somewhere truly worthwhile. But it tends to start the same way, with someone else.
HF Holidays gets that. We think you will too.
82% of adults in the People and Nature Survey for England agreed that being in nature made them very happy.
That’s your cue to enjoy the great outdoors!
