Rewrite Your Outdoor Narrative

Hi, I’m Denice Rochelle, Founder of The Bronze Chapter. Here, we create outdoor recreational pathways for people of color who want to skillfully connect with the wildly abundant love and benefits of nature, the lands, and waters.

If we were sitting together right now watching ocean waves tumble grains of sand at the shoreline, I’d tell you that nature has always been my comfort zone. It’s where I go when life gets loud or sad, and it’s also where I celebrate.

I learned to walk in the wet sand of the ocean’s ebb and flood. I grew up camping, fishing, riding dirt bikes, waterskiing, traveling by train, and swimming in lakes. The outdoors has always held and taught me.

As an adult, I connect with nature and the natural world in even more ways – sea kayaking, backpacking, snowboarding, motorcycling, scuba diving, solo traveling, and more. After all these years, somethings haven’t changed much. I’m still often the only – or one of the few – Black or brown faces in the place.

Talking with folks in my community, I heard the same barriers to outdoor recreation come up over and over:

I don’t have anyone to go with.
I don’t know how to do ____________.
I don’t have or know how to use the equipment.

The cosmos urged me to use my lived experience to help minimize these barriers. To do something to be the change I wanted to see, to make something I wish I had, and maybe find some new outdoor buddies in the process.

I created The Bronze Chapter to help more people who look like me rewrite their outdoor narratives.

Having experiences, knowledge, and skills to share, the idea was to bridge adventure gaps and create pathways to experiencing the connections, restoration, excitement, learnings, and peace that I found in nature and the natural world my whole life.

We aren’t just inviting people to a campout, class, event, retreat, or workshop. When we invite community out, something powerful happens. It’s not academic. It’s visceral, transformational, and beautiful.

“We protect what we have a relationship with”

We’re creating spaces where people of color and their loves ones can drop their guard, meet other outdoor enthusiasts, and pick up the confidence to receive the many benefits of being in nature and natural world spaces. It’s about:

Growing community: We come together – there’s confidence in numbers.
Sharing skills: We learn to be safe – competency builds confidence.
Demystifying gear: We learn about items that can suit our needs – having equipment that fits the need makes all the difference.
Mental resets: We’re living in stressful times. Yet when we’re near water or trees, shoulders drop and breaths slow. Nature is a scientifically proven buffer against stress. We create spaces to be our authentic selves, unbothered.
Confidence that travels: By learning to filter our own water, set up a tent, or skillfully navigate a trail, we feel pride. That “I can do this” energy doesn’t stay in the woods or lakeside; it follows us home, into our jobs, at school, and our communities.
Protecting what we love: We protect what we have a relationship with. We want the Global Majority to feel such a deep, personal connection to land and water that they choose to be an active part of the movement to protect the planet.

Welcome to the world of The Bronze Chapter. You’re in good company!

Denice Rochelle Founder & Director, The Bronze Chapter

Ready to rewrite your own outdoor narrative? Let’s take the first step together. Subscribe for updates and find your next adventure on our events calendar.

If you want to learn more about our origin, what we do and how we do it, and who we serve, you can read more on this page.