AssoCEA Messina is the first affiliate in Sicily of FEDERTEK Hiking and Environment

Messina, 18 April 2024 – AssoCEA Messina APS – Environmental Education Center, chaired by Eng. Francesco Cancellieri from 16 April 2024 is the first Association in Sicily to be affiliated with FEDERTREK.

This step, as well as certifying our national level. credibility as a partner allows us from ETS (Third Sector Body) to be in an important network and to propose ourselves – over time – as a reference for FEDERTREK in Sicily.

In this happy moment, AssoCEA Messina APS remembers the late Vice President Italo Clementi which was the fundamental “hook” – over a decade ago – with FEDERTREK and naturally the Board of Directors of AssoCEA Messina APS expresses gratitude to the President of FEDERTREK Alessandro Piazzi and to the Administrative Secretariat with Claudia Rinaldi for the preliminary work and constant support for the growth of AssoCEA Messina APS according to the quality standards of the Federation.

FEDERTREK – Hiking and Environment is a Social Promotion Body, with a federal structure, founded in 2010 as the evolution of a federation experience developed at a regional level. It is a federation of around 40 Associations that share the same Mission and work in synergy to achieve common objectives.

The affiliated associations, the beating heart of FEDERTREK, and the Federation itself, do not operate for profit and do not provide services. In fact, they carry out activities of general interest for the pursuit of civic, solidarity and social utility purposes, encouraging participation, inclusion and the full development of the person. All activities have social interest as their common thread. They simply offer hiking, cultural and sporting activities as well as ecological walks in the open air, thanks to the commitment and passion of their volunteer companions.

The mission is to raise in Italy a strong awareness of how much walking, in the city, in the hills or in the mountains or at the seaside, contributes to the individual and collective well-being that our sedentary society urgently needs.

Maximum openness to collaboration with other organizations and associations that in various capacities, voluntary or professional, work towards the same goals.

The attention to promoting the culture of walking also with innovative experiences is one of the salient characteristics of FEDERTREK.

The theme of disability is central, for example, and accessibility to nature trails for disabled people via the Joelette – a special wheelchair which, pulled by Volunteer Hikers – allows you to share walks with people even with serious motor disabilities. In reality, the proposed excursions are open to all types of physical disabilities and/or even accompanying blind people.

FEDERTREKalso transmits with the walks proposed from time to time, an intercultural and interreligious message that makes walking an activity that transcends all differences.

In daily action, supported by the enthusiasm of the many hiking leaders, one also becomes “sentinels of the territory” who know how to report abuses or activities incompatible with the protection of the biodiversity heritage present in Italy. We therefore also and above all aim at protection and improvement of the Environment as well as a careful use of Natural Resources.

Through affiliated associations, FEDERTREK carries out the following activities:

• Promotion of hiking as knowledge of the territory and protection of the environment;
• Hiking, cycling, mountain biking; long-distance trekking;
• Themed excursions and courses: botanical, geological, archaeological;
• Environmental education courses also for schools;
• Courses for Volunteer Hiking Leaders;
• Cross-country skiing, hiking and snowshoeing courses and trips;
• Hiking, orienteering, topography, meteorology and first aid courses;
• Design and maintenance of paths.

The first event of AssoCEA Messina APS affiliated with FEDERTREK it will be April 28, 2024, an excursion on the occasion of City Nature Challenge 2024 And Stork DAY 2024.

The activity includes travel by tourist bus from Messina to Caltagirone with an excursion around the Naturalistic Base of il Ramarro followed by lunch in a restaurant then transfer by bus to the Naturalistic Museum of Niscemi with a guided tour and delivery of the Custode della Macchia mention to Slowfood Niscemi Mediterranean and then transfer by bus to the Gela Plain at GELOI Wetland with parking and observation of the storks on the occasion of Cicogna DAY 2024.