MOVEMENTS IN THE MOUNTAINS
Liquid Spark Foundation is a startup non-profit organization created to serve people in disadvantaged mountain communities worldwide. We use the benefits of non-profit status to enable tax-deductible donations for education sponsorships, education training programs, environmental initiatives, and community initiatives and products that serve people, place and planet. Programs and initiatives are determined by community needs. All programs and initiatives are subject to approval by the LSF board of directors.
See our Mission Statement for more about Liquid Spark Foundation.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Julie Thorner – President
Paige Christie – Treasurer
Tsering – Secretary
WE ARE A NON-POLITICAL, NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION
Liquid Spark Foundation is not a political organization and holds no views as such on politics wherever our programs are supporting mountain communities. The individual donors and Liquid Spark Foundation Board of Directors, staff or advisors may have their own views of global and local politics and any exercise of them as private citizens outside of our organization has nothing to do with Liquid Spark Foundation.
A note about sponsorships in China and Tibet: Founder Julie Thorner started Liquid Spark Foundation after three years of volunteer marketing consulting on responsible tourism to Tibetan and Chinese entrepreneurs. She privately sponsored a young Tibetan woman from a large nomadic family to finish her last 2 years of Traditional Tibetan Medical School training in Chengdu, China from fall 2015 to spring 2017. The student’s family had fallen on hard times and couldn’t afford to keep her in school. If you travel to Tibetan regions in China and want to be helpful to the private citizens of this country – it is essential to keep all politics out. You will actually endanger those you are trying to help if you engage in any political activism with your student or our foundation. If you cannot abide by this – please do not participate in Liquid Spark Foundation. We work people-to-people in China and will not risk losing the chance to support students and nuns living in China’s Tibetan areas. Contact us directly with any questions on this. Thank you.
LIQUID SPARK FOUNDATION TEAM
Julie Thorner
Founder & President
Julie is a seasoned international adventurer and ecopreneur from the US with skillset that includes being a river guide, kayaking instructor, bike tour guide, banker, retailer, marketer and entrepreneur. She speaks conversational Chinese and Spanish and is learning written Tibetan. She lived in China for six months during college decades ago, and fell in love with Tibet after her first visit there in November of 2015. With an avid interest in the intersection of Eastern, Western and Indigenous religions, science and philosophy, she helped design the first Eastern Tibet Women’s Buddhist Pilgrimage Tour with her Tibetan entrepreneur colleagues in 2015. While in Tibet, she discovered from her adventure tourism Tibetan colleague (and now good friend) Tsering Tso, that there are many young Tibetans who can’t afford college, but are qualified academically to go. She created Liquid Spark Foundation as a way to make a difference and give back. Julie is the founder of the adventure tourism marketing company Liquid Spark, and the parent of two sons.
Paige Christie
Treasurer
Raised in a small, rural community in Maine where learning to shoot a gun properly was as important as getting a scholarship to a good school, Paige learned quickly that society did not have to dictate the role she would play in her own life. So she honed in on fine marksmanship. She got her scholarship. And she wrote. Paige possesses an uncanny knowledge of myths, archetypes and mystical worlds, and is a true student of fantasy, science fiction, history. It is her deep interest in folklore, as well as intersection of Middle Eastern and North African cultures, that originally piqued her interest in the exploration of the influence of different societies—something that became the foundation of her novels. When she isn’t writing, she is an Executive Director of a non-profit, teaches belly dancing, runs a wine shop and artisan store in western North Carolina, and moonlights for Liquid Spark, Inc., our sister marketing agency.
Tsering
Secretary
Tsering is from Aba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, part of the Amdo region of Eastern Tibet, in Sichuan Province, China. She received both her bachelor and master’s degrees from Chengdu-based Universities. She is a travel tour operator with years of experience in planning, developing, guiding and implementing tourism projects and designing itineraries based on clients’ interests in China and Tibetan regions. She likes to donate her time to help people realize their potential and achieve their dreams. Tsering is a natural bridge builder and helps match students with financial needs who desire to attend universities, to international sponsors. Tsering’s ability to find qualified students was the spark for starting Liquid Spark Foundation in 2017! Tsering speaks fluent English, Chinese and, of course, Tibetan.