By Jenn Sheridan ·
Mael Passanesi ·
Igniting social change & outdoor recreation
It’s 11 a.m. on a Sunday and Jennifer Gurecki has just boarded a plane in Nairobi, Kenya. She’s finished a nearly month-long trip where she guided two groups through the towns and villages in the country while engaging with members of Zawadisha, a nonprofit founded by Gurecki that provides microloans to the women of Kenya.
In between flights, she’ll be busy following up with her second company, Coalition Snow, which builds skis and snowboards for women designed by women.
“For a really long time, I’ve been interested in how things can be different for women and challenging the status quo,” said Gurecki.
Unsatisfied with the traditional roles many women face around the globe, Gurecki seeks to build a foundation from which other women can create change.
Jennifer Gurecki, right, and Meghan Kelly reach the summit of Mount Kenya ·
Starting with Zawadisha
She first visited Kenya in 2004. A grad student at the time, she was researching a bottom-up approach to social change. Specifically interested in what women thought they needed to succeed, she found that the women who lived in poverty lacked access to the capital and support they needed grow a business to support themselves and their families.
“I got hooked. I fell in love with Kenya and knew I wanted to come back, but I didn’t know what to do with that feeling,” said Gurecki, “I was 26 and I didn’t know anything about anything.”
After returning to the States and finishing her masters program, Gurecki began working with Adventure Risk Challenge, an outdoor literacy and leadership program at UC Berkeley. Meanwhile, she stayed in contact with the people she had connected with in Kenya.
“Through my work I became more comfortable. I was making budgets and managing a staff. I felt I was in a position where I could follow up on what I did in Kenya,” said Gurecki.
At the time, companies providing microloans were becoming popular, but many of them were not managed in a way that benefitted the poor, and particularly women in poverty, Gurecki says. Gurecki loosely compares the system to the way credit card companies target college students to sign on for debt they may not be able to afford. She set out to change the system. Using her personal savings, she returned to Kenya and lent the first round of microloans. Each loan was large enough to help a business get started, but small enough that the borrower would not be crippled with debt should the business fail.
“I didn’t even tell anyone about it because I wasn’t sure how it was going to work,” said Gurecki.
However the first round was successful with borrowers repaying their loans and seeing a benefit. The program began to grow organically from there.
“Two years ago, we officially became a nonprofit and now we can serve hundreds of women through microloans,” said Gurecki.
In addition to providing capital, Zawadisha works with individuals to provide financial literacy programs, self-defense classes and healthcare to participants. Through Imprint Adventures, Gurecki provides guided tours to Kenya to help connect those who want to help Zawadisha with the culture and women of the country.
Jennifer Gurecki launched Coalition Snow during a summit of Mount Kenya ·
Bringing change to the ski industry
In between managing a nonprofit that fosters social change, Gurecki’s passion lies in exploring the mountains. Here, too, she found that women’s voices were going unheard in the male-dominated ski and snowboard industry. On the professional side, it is common for male athletes to receive more exposure and higher pay than their female counterparts. On the recreational side, less research and design is focused on women-specific gear.
“You spend enough time skiing and snowboarding with women and these themes start to emerge like ‘My gear sucks,’ or ‘I bought these men’s skis because the woman’s stuff was too soft,” said Gurecki. “It became really obvious that there was this opportunity to become part of this grassroots movement where women were taking ownership over their experiences in the mountains.”
The desire to challenge the norm set in again and Gurecki began talking to women and researching what everyday skiers and riders desired from their gear. Soon she was developing the first prototype and Coalition Snow was born.
It’s fitting that Gurecki returned to Kenya to officially launch Coalition Snow. In November 2013, she summited Mount Kenya and made the first run on a Coalition Snow snowboard while raising $16,355 for Zawadisha.
The winter of 2013 was spent building and testing prototypes. Gurecki worked with local women around Tahoe to test each design before deciding what the company would produce. Looking to cater to the more aggressive skier and rider, the designs are generally longer and stiffer compared to the gear usually marketed to women.
In the fall of 2014, Coalition Snow launched its first line of skis and snowboards for sale and so far the response is positive.
For Gurecki, she says that the next step is to raise awareness not just for Coalition Snow but also for women to realize they have do have a voice in the ski industry.
Save dough on Coalition Snow’s gear. Visit TheTahoeWeekly.com and click on the digital edition of Tahoe Powder magazine for a special discount on Coalition Snow’s women-specific skis and snowboards.
