Wabun Foundation – About Us
The Wabun Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization that was founded in 2015 as Friends of Wabun and later became known as the Red Canoe Foundation. All of our board members and advisors had life-changing wilderness experiences at Wabun as teens and/or have witnessed the same transformations in their children who have attended Wabun. Since our founding in 2015, the core mission of connecting youth with transformative wilderness expeditions has remained unchanged and enduring.
Staff
Phoebe Knowles, Executive Director (phoebe.knowles@wabun.org)
I am honored and thrilled to have the opportunity to lead this organization into its next chapter. We are entering an exciting time for Wabun, and as we navigate the route ahead, I am very much looking forward to working with this committed and passionate community of people dedicated to the future of this organization.
Board of Directors
Chair
Vice Chair
Secretary, Founding Director
Treasurer
Director at Large
Camp Wabun Charitable Corporation
Advisory Board
Chris Bartlett – Advisor
Molly Brennan – Advisor
Bill Brennan – Advisor
Aaron Coleman – Advisor
Conor Finnegan – Advisor
Katherine Finnegan – Advisor
Lucas Rooney – Advisor
Lily Turner – Advisor
Emeritus Circle
Gail Coleman (Executive Director 2018 to 2023)
Gail was introduced to Wabun in 1983 when she staffed the Wawatay section with Julie Hinchman. Since then she has taken many Wabun-affiliated river trips, sent both of her sons to Wabun, and hopes that her granddaughter Josephine will be a Wawatay in 2025! Gail was recruited by Libby Moore in 2018 to be the first Executive Director of the Red Canoe Foundation. In that role she significantly improved our operational efficiency and helped us reach and increase our annual appeal goals each year. Gail’s work laid the foundation upon which we will build to sustain access to wilderness canoeing for many young people for generations to come.
Libby Moore – in memoriam (Founding Director & Chair 2015-2019)
Libby’s experiences canoe tripping as a teenager laid the groundwork for her life. The teamwork, the time for introspection, and the mental and physical strengths she developed became the skills and values she brought to career and family. A graduate of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Libby worked professionally in forest ecology and land use policy in Maine. There she and her husband hiked and camped with their three children. But it was letting them go on their own wilderness expeditions and witnessing the profoundly positive effects that propelled Libby to strive to connect more young people with wilderness.
Red Canoe Foundation Annual Reports, FY 2019-2023
Please click on the photo to read or download the PDF version of the Annual Report.
