Alumni Who Live By The Code: Molly Pickall
Molly Pickall - Servant’s Heart
At Falling Creek the FCC Code shapes our daily actions, as we strive to consistently live with Warrior Spirit, Servant’s Heart, Positive Attitude, and Moral Compass. The Code is a set of enduring traditional values that provides the framework for everything at camp, but its importance goes far beyond the summer months. In this blog series, we’ll highlight some of the amazing Falling Creek alumni who continue to “Live by the Code,” modeling these values in their daily lives.
In addition to discussing the camp history of these alumni, we’ll also share what they’ve been up to since being camp counselors. They give valuable advice for current counselors wanting to join their same career fields, and describe the impact that Falling Creek had on their personal and professional careers.
Next in this blog series, we’ll highlight Molly Pickall, a Falling Creek Alumna who worked as a counselor in 2002, ‘03, ‘05, & ‘06. Molly has since been the Associate Vice President of Field Philanthropy for the Trust for Public Land non-profit organization. The Trust for Public Land works to create parks, protect public land, and connect everyone to the outdoors. Their four commitments are equity, health, climate, and community.
Molly models Servant’s Heart by committing her life to environmental justice and land protection efforts, ensuring that others have the same access to the outdoors that she has enjoyed. But how did she get to be in the role that she holds today, and what advice would she have for others looking to enter the field of land conservation work?
Molly, how did you first hear about working at Falling Creek? What made you return for multiple summers?
Johnathan Bain was in my freshman class in college, and he and I both had student jobs at Davidson Outdoors. I knew that at the time his father Donnie was co-director with Chuck McGrady at FCC, and I knew that Johnathan had grown up around the summer camp. Sometime in the spring of my freshman year a conversation came up around, “what are you gonna do with your summer?” He said we should join him at Falling Creek, and I said, “well that’s a boys’ camp, what could I teach there?” He just said, “So? What can’t you teach?” One of the things that I loved from the very beginning about Falling Creek was just that response and that culture that everyone is welcome. I really loved being in a position of teaching skills, especially when I taught lacrosse. I grew up playing across Maryland, and my father and grandfather had been coaches. I loved being in a position of coaching boys who typically only have a male coach, and I was totally supported by my fellow counselors and by all the camp leadership and in my role. You know, being a freshman in college, that was a very empowering thing at that age.
After returning to Falling Creek for 4 summers to teach lacrosse, horseback riding, and mountain biking, what have you been doing since?
It’s been 16 years since my last summer in 2006, and it sounds crazy but from Falling Creek I literally packed up my car and I moved out to Bozeman, Montana. I had never been to Bozeman before, but while I was at Falling Creek that summer, I applied for and got a job with the Yellowstone Park Foundation, which is a conservation organization that supports Yellowstone National Park. I remember being very conflicted because Falling Creek was a very important place to me, so I was unsure about leaving. But again, both Chuck McGrady and Donnie Bain are two people who I consider to be great mentors, and I remember them both saying to me, you’ve done great work for us here at Falling Creek and camp will always be here, but now it’s time to start your life adventure. So I moved out to Bozeman then, and I’ve been there ever since. Bozeman completely became my home, and I’ve built a career around land protection and access to public land.
Did your experience at camp inspire this career path in any way?
I really think back to one of my favorite places that probably every camper goes to, which is DuPont State Forest. I love the story around how DuPont State Forest came to be this incredible piece of public land, and how people in North Carolina and around the country can now enjoy and appreciate it thanks to a group of citizens including Chuck McGrady, and the work of other conservation groups. It was a privately owned compound by the DuPont company, and it was going to be developed into a sort of wilderness neighborhood with homes on large acreage lots, but no one in the general public would have been able to experience how special that place is. Chuck McGrady was instrumental in the protection of that place, and it left such an impression on me. Talking about the Servant’s Heart at Falling Creek, what an incredible example of a thing to do for your community and for generations to experience. My entire career in land conservation has been around protecting and supporting the protection of public places like that, which are important to communities to enjoy. It’s a pretty cool tie to how my career has turned out, just seeing what kind of impact being at Falling Creek had and enjoying the places like DuPont State Forest.
After getting started with the Yellowstone Park Foundation, where have you been working since?
I went to work for the Trust for Public Land, and that’s where I’ve spent the bulk of my career. I’ve been doing that for the last 12 or so years and I was the Associate Vice President for Field Philanthropy. What that means is that I oversaw all our fund-raising programs across the country, both state-based and regional. Philanthropy work that focuses on the environmental field is what’s important to me, particularly where climate change and the environment intersect with people and communities. Specifically I’ll stay focused on environmental justice and DEI. Right now, I’m doing consulting work for the Trust for Public Land, as well as a few other groups, so that part of my work continues.
What’s a typical day like for you with your role?
That might be a boring answer since I spent a lot of time working at my computer or on zoom, but because of the place I live in, on a typical day I’m always able to start my morning doing something that I love outdoors. I might be trail running or biking with my dogs in the summer or fall, and in the winter or spring I’m able to go cross country skiing. I can do something out of doors before I start my day every morning, which is important to me and something that I learned at Falling Creek. It just fills my bucket to be outside and to be active. Otherwise, I spend a lot of time on the phone or on zoom and e-mail for work, and mostly I’m connecting directly with my staff helping them problem-solve. I’ll bring my staff and cross functional teams together to figure out solutions or build strategy. The best part of my job though is when I get to take donors to see the work that we have done or are doing. That might be taking them on park tours or hiking with them - one of my favorite trips was taking some donors whitewater rafting. We pulled over at the edge of Glacier National Park to visit a piece of property that we protected and added to the Park. The thing about creating parks and trails and land conservation is that you can walk and bike and hike and fish on our work - it’s a physical thing and it is so fulfilling to go visit these places that we have protected and created access for generations. It is a very rewarding moment especially to share that with our supporters.
Did any of the values or the skills that you learned at Falling Creek affect your career? Absolutely, I always say to people that the best job I ever had was being a camp counselor at Falling Creek Camp, and it’s true because we worked really hard but it was such a joyful time. As a side note about a year ago, I was hiring a staff member to run some fund-raising work and when I was deciding between my finalists, they were so close on paper and they had a lot of the right credentials, so it was really hard to decide which person was going be the best for the role. I asked the question, “what was the best job you ever had,” and the person who said to me, “working at a summer camp” is the person that I hired. What I’m tying that to is what I gained the most at Falling Creek - the opportunity and encouragement to be curious about learning. That curiosity and willingness to try and learn things is both a skill and a really amazing treat to have in life. Sometimes we have that as children but we lose it in the high school to college age. So now, fast forward to my professional career when I’m building out my teams, I look for people who bring that curiosity and a growth mindset to their work because it means that they will be willing to do something new and different. Ultimately you can build a better team with someone who brings that kind of openness and spirit of inquiry to things, so I really credit that time at Falling Creek where the environment was just about being curious and growing and learning, all while having a lot of fun and joy doing it. That’s a pretty special thing about the culture at camp.
Do you still keep in touch with your camp friends? I do, I actually just went mountain biking with Ben and Elliot Williams last weekend in Big Sky. Probably exactly a year ago I was at Warren Cathcart’s wedding and there was a a good group of us from camp including Johnathan and Laura Bain. My own wedding was just four years ago, and there were a number of camp folks there including John Voight who played the guitar at my wedding. Just like at Final Campfire, we had “Will the Circle be Unbroken” as the last song that we that we had played at our wedding, and for me that was a a special connection to camp.
Do you have any advice for current camp counselors? Whatever place you are curious about – whether it’s a place like Bozeman, Montana or Bend, Oregon or Flagstaff, Arizona – whatever place enables you to enjoy doing the things you love to do or enjoy time with your friends, you should go there and pursue that. I would also expand on my comment about curiosity – I think the friends that I had at Falling Creek and my fellow counselors just had a higher emotional intelligence than most other peers my age. As a result we have more fulfilling friendships and relationships, and that’s a real asset for any young professional after their time at Falling Creek. Coming out of there as a counselor, if you embrace that curiosity and that growth mindset and desire to learn things, you have more to offer than the average hire. Wherever you end up and whatever you do, because you’re curious about how other people and systems work, that’s a huge asset and I think that the way that’s ingrained at Falling Creek is really wonderful. On top of that, if you act with a Servant’s Heart, embrace how you can serve your community in the greater good, however you might define that, that’s something great you can offer. It might be supporting your community of families, it might be working at a nonprofit like I do, or it might even be running for public office. I think that anyone coming out of Falling Creek has a lot to offer to their community, and so leaning into that calling with your Servants Heart is something I recommend.
What about someone who is specifically interested in going into Land Protection or Environmental Conservation like you?
They should reach out to me, and I would be happy to connect with anyone who would be interested in that. (please for Molly’s contact!) In terms of specifically land conservation, public land, and land access, certain skills are great to have. Having a background in GIS, a background in real estate, or any degree in the hard sciences is very helpful. However, more and more the protection of land is also about how people interact with land. Studying things like urban planning, park design, or creative placemaking can have a really beautiful overlap between land protection, use, and design.
Is there anything else you’d like to add that I didn’t ask you about?
Actually, the biggest moment of glory in my life happened during Counselor Hunt when I was at Falling Creek. I was a champion at Counselor Hunt, and I wasn’t caught by anyone for my first three summers. Every year the bounty for catching me kept going up. By my 4th year, if anyone caught me, I was worth a pizza party with soda for their whole cabin! It still feels like the highest value thing that I have ever done in my life, and actually I did get found that year by one of the youngest kids in camp, so that was pretty cool. I have asked for and received multimillion dollar gifts in my fund-raising work, but nothing has felt more rewarding than being worth a pizza party for a whole cabin.
Do you know a member of the Falling Creek community who “Lives by the Code”? Nominate them so we can feature their stories and advice! Email with your suggestions.