Who We Are

We are Monica, Odette, Anita and Victor.  Our dream is to engage people around us in outdoor activities on a regular basis, preferably together with friends and/or family.  We also promote a healthy active lifestyle in general.  In order to have the proper workframe, we have decided to create the NOW Club in 2010.

Motto:

Our motto is “Only mind, body and spirit powered activities” and it may create some confusion and/or mixed feelings.

This is a brief explanation to clarify its meaning:  One of the NOW Club goals is to engage people with their entire being (mind, body and spirit) in activities that need power only from the human body (muscular and skeletal systems in principal), the human brain (thoughts, believes, wits, will) and/or the human spirit.

There are two main reasons for this:
(1) to limit our pollution foot print on Mother Earth as much as possible during these activities by limiting the use of cars, power tools, green gas emission sources, fossil fuels burning devices, etc., and
(2) to discover, enjoy, appreciate, care and protect the nature as much as possible during these activities.

Mission:

>  Bring people back together.  Technology brings people together in cyberspace, but parts them in the real life.

>  Bring people back in the present time, (re)create the sense of “present” (= “now”), bring that in consciousness and treat it as a “present” (= “gift”).

>  Help people (re)connect with Mother Nature and (re)discover the beauty of nature.

>  Equip people and, especially, kids with the necessary knowledge and skills for the outdoor activities:  group leadership, team work, self-confidence, self-awareness, emergency situation management, first aid, survival skills, water safety, mountain/woods/wilderness safety, etc.

>  Create a habit of outdoor activities as close as possible to the natural environment, which means away from power tools/toys, cars, computers, TV’s, emails, blogs, video games, cell phones, BlackBerry’s, iPhone’s, iPod’s, background noise, crowded places, etc. – in one word, away from “civilization”.

What the name stands for:

i) NOW can be read as one word:

NOW = Present Time, This Moment

ii) Or NOW can be looked at as an acronym:

NOW = Nature/Nutrition - Om/Outdoor - Water/Wheels/Wind

Nature is a kind of synonym with Mother Earth and is a part of our life and universe.  It needs to be discovered, admired, cared for and loved through walking, running, hiking, camping, etc.

Nutrition is an important and integrant part of our human and physical life.  The process of nutrition shoud be as gentle as possible on both "Nature" and "Om" (human being).

Om means “complete human being” (mind, body and spirit).  “Om” is also the sound that helps the process of meditation.  Therefore, “Om” represents meditation, retreat, healing, etc.

Outdoor is the place where we would like to be most of the time.

Water, Wheels, Wind help the “Om” get to different corners of “Nature” and experience it through swimming, kayaking, canoeing, rowing, rafting, skiing, snowboarding, skating, biking, rollerblading, windsurfing, kitboarding, etc.