Category: Blog

Reflections – Impacting families across the world

KRISTEN CALVIN ESQ. CHIEF LEGAL ADVISOR Over the past five years, Mountain Seed Foundation (MSF) has been more than just an organization I’ve advised. It is something I have grown alongside. Being involved from the very beginning has given me a rare perspective: I’ve watched an idea rooted in service, healing, and community evolve into […]

5 Year Staff Reflections-Andreas Gassner

Andreas Gassner Lead Climbing Guide, Mountain Seed Foundation For me, MSF started when an American client of mine told me about his idea of making the mountains and their positive energy on people accessible to veterans and their families. Of course I agreed and offered my help with that vision, but – really – I […]

Olena & Me

Amit G. Oren, Phd Clinical Director, Mountain Seed Foundation “If your life is a leaf that the seasons tear off and condemn, they will bind you with love that is graceful and green as a stem” Leonard Cohen, from “The Sisters of Mercy”. She appeared, wild as the wind. With an angelic face, hair braided […]

Veterans helping Veterans

In August of 2024, at the Healing Base Camp in the Austrian alps, for the first time in the history of the Mountain Seed Foundation the therapeutic efforts of the program would center on injured Ukrainian soldiers and their families. In the past, we had worked with the families of widows and the displaced. Having […]

Since yesterday, these thoughts haven’t left my mind

Just last month, a new four-year-old boy joined our junior art therapy group. He’s very energetic, always arriving in an excited state, but with bright eyes and a strong desire to be part of the group and express himself. Every time, his grandmother brings and picks him up, and by then, it’s clear she’s already […]

Healing Base Camp Journal

One of our Healing Base Camp volunteers, Kendra, kept a journal throughout her week with us at camp. Here you can read her impressions and insights on each day of camp and get a better idea of what goes into the day to day activities. Kendra was helping mostly with the Kids Climbing Team, so […]

Dan Cnossen’s visit to military rehabilitation centers

In late April, 2024, as part of the Mountain Seed Foundation’s mission to visit military rehabilitation centers inside Ukraine and scout potential areas for future mountain retreats and climbing centers, I journeyed a couple hours’ drive south of Lviv to the Paralympic training center in the Carpathian mountain region. This was my first time in […]

MSF Visit to Ukraine – Dan Cnossen’s Reflections

After a week inside Ukraine, visiting Lviv, Kyiv and the Ukrainian Paralympic training center in the Carpathian mountains with the Mountain Seed Foundation, several memories come to mind: The strength of Ukrainian gold star mothers and families was evident to me after experiencing the Mountain Seed Foundation’s healing base camp in 2023. Now, after visiting […]

Reflections from Ukraine

As I sit on a plane, departing from my recent trip to Ukraine, I am filled with so much hope but also so much urgency.  Hope because I met with the families we have supported from Cherkassy and Mykolaiv and I felt their hope, their optimism despite the continuing fight, despite the continued sense of […]

Dr. French’s touching tribute to all who turn pain into triumph!

The Inamori Ethics Prize is awarded to honor not just scholars but the doers of the world and those showing ethical leadership in their fields.