One young couple's dream emerged from an accident that changed their lives forever. Brian's accident was a life-changing event for both Brian and me, as individuals and as a couple. During the year and a half long recovery process, we thought about what we really wanted to do with our lives, careers and Outdoor Recreation degrees. These conversations sparked the idea of starting a camp of our own. As a result, our dream of starting Footprints Adventures, Inc. came to life. Footprints Adventures is a nonprofit organization which provides adventure travel trips for teens and young adults with limb differences and limb loss (amputations). Footprints is categorized as a specialized camp, meaning it caters to a specific population (Lais & McAvoy, 1999). The complex, multifaceted process of founding Footprints Adventures is the case study for this thesis. It is a qualitative evaluation of the challenges and successes encountered while founding Footprints. I compare the steps that business professionals recommend to the actual process the Brian and I used to founder Footprints. Recommendations are offered with regard to starting an adventure education nonprofit organization and I highlight parts of the process that could be done differently. Finally, I discuss where Footprints Adventures is now.

Keywords: adventure education, specialized camp, nonprofit organization, Footprints Adventures, adventures for amputees.