Leadership & Governance
Building the initiative with people who know the rivers, understand the responsibility, and believe the story is worth carrying forward.
The Whitewater Heritage Initiative is still in its founding stage. Its leadership is being developed deliberately, bringing together people with deep connections to whitewater alongside professionals whose experience can help shape preservation, education, conservation, governance, and long-term growth.
The goal is not simply to assemble a board. It is to build a group capable of asking the right questions, challenging the early ideas, and helping turn a shared vision into something lasting.
Meet the Founder
I didn’t grow up in the whitewater industry. Honestly, I didn’t even know this kind of life existed.
My first rafting trip was a spur-of-the-moment trip on the Lower New in 2007. A few years later I moved to the New River Gorge, started spending more time around the rivers and the people who had built their lives around them, and this community became home.
The idea for the Whitewater Heritage Initiative really took hold after I attended a Women of Whitewater event in Southern West Virginia. I sat there listening to women tell stories about the early days of rafting and realized I wanted more. I wanted to know who these people were, what they built, what they learned, and what almost went terribly wrong along the way.
Then I went looking for the place where all of that history lived. There wasn’t one. That bothered me.
Whitewater is still a relatively young industry, and we are incredibly lucky that so many of the people who helped build it are still here. But their stories are still living in memories, old photographs, garages, boxes, boats, and private collections scattered across the country. And too often, the people behind those stories get reduced to a bunch of river hippies who happened to make a living on the water.
They were so much more than that. They were entrepreneurs, innovators, conservationists, problem-solvers, and community builders. They took risks, figured things out as they went, and in some places completely changed what was possible for the communities around them.
This industry changed my life. It gave me a community, a career, a place I feel at home, and a world I didn’t even know was available to me when I was growing up. I started this Initiative because I don’t want us to lose the stories of the people who made that possible.
For the last twelve years, I’ve worked throughout outdoor recreation in reservations, sales, operations, training, guest experience, nonprofit communications, and technology. That work has put me alongside guides, river managers, reservation teams, outfitters, and owners, and today my role with The Flybook keeps me connected to operators across the country.
Those experiences are not the reason I started the Initiative. They are what give me the opportunity to build it. I understand how these operations work, I know how busy the people inside them are, and I already have the privilege of sitting down with many of the people whose stories and knowledge this project hopes to preserve.
The history is still here. The people are still here. I want to make sure we do something with that while we still can.
Angel Blankenship
Founder, Whitewater Heritage Initiative
Building the First Circle
The Founding Steering Committee is currently being formed. Rather than beginning with an open application process, the initial committee is being assembled through conversations with respected professionals, industry leaders, historians, river people, and community partners who can help identify individuals with the perspective and experience this work requires. The committee will serve as an early working group for the Initiative, helping evaluate the founding vision, establish priorities, identify opportunities and challenges, and guide the development of a sustainable organizational structure. Confirmed members will be introduced here as the committee takes shape.
Creating a Structure Built to Last
The structure is still being built. The intention is clear: create leadership broad enough to represent the story, thoughtful enough to protect it, and strong enough to carry the work forward.
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Will help guide the earliest stage of development, refine the vision, establish priorities, and inform the organization’s initial direction
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Expected to carry fiduciary and organizational responsibility as the Initiative develops into a formal nonprofit organization
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Connect the Initiative with organizations, communities, universities, outfitters, museums, conservation groups, and others whose work intersects with its mission
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Help gather stories, document collections, support events, conduct research, and participate in the work of preservation
The Whitewater Heritage Initiative is not intended to belong to one person, one river, or one organization.
Its foundation will be shaped through conversation with the people who have lived this history, those working in whitewater today, and those who can help ensure its stories, lessons, and traditions remain relevant for generations to come.
Leadership announcements will be shared as the Founding Steering Committee develops.