Camping in Canvas and Changing the World

Unreasonable Group's Project Literacy Lab

Posted on: September 13, 2016
By: Robyn Smith
Camping in Canvas and Changing the World

Project Literacy Lab was a gathering of 40+ exceptional entrepreneurs on a Mendocino vineyard to tackle one of the largest challenges facing our global community today: illiteracy.  A collaboration between Unreasonable Group and global education giant Pearson, Patrick Hanlon’s editorial for Forbes artfully summarizes how the best and brightest minds converge, collaborate, and leverage the power of the collective to make our world a better place through literacy.    

We are fortunate to be in a business in which our products are largely used in the noble pursuit of bringing people closer to inspiring places, people, and cultures.  Every night thousands of people settle in and around their tents and share ideas, stories, and intimate moments; enhanced by the ability to escape the walls we’ve built around us that separate us from the elements, the wild, and each other. 

CanvasCamp is built on a global community of individuals that understand and appreciate the power of getting outside and communing with nature, and sharing that experience with others.  It is our mission, and our pleasure, to provide the canvas around which these ideas, emotions, and experiences are shared.

Although our Instagram, facebook, and website are flush pictures, videos, and testimonials of people using our tents for all sorts of ways, it’s typically only a small glimpse of what any camper knows to be the larger story of what happens outside and how those experiences shape us.

Every so often CanvasCamp is fortunate to get a peak into the extraordinary stuff our tents are used for.  Project Literacy Lab, and the Unreasonable hearts and minds behind it reminded us why we do what we do. 

“If we really want to help 757 million people around the world to read, we’re going to need a thousand more sessions like this. Ten thousand more sessions. And then maybe we’ll make a dent. So when you get back home, tell everyone about all the incredible things you did here. And then ask them to tell three people about what still needs to be done. And ask them to tell three more people, and three more and three more.”

As I look out over the roomful of energized faces, I have a sudden and profound realization.

We’re going to need more tents. – Patrick Hanlon, Forbes