Home » Partners & Parents » Youth Empowerment » Summer Fun-- with High Adventure Twist (Part One)

Summer Fun-- with High Adventure Twist (Part One)

© Barb Huff

I learned quickly working with inner-city children that anything that involves the outdoors can be classified "high adventure twist." Often I light-heartedly joke with the teens about being afraid of more than two trees growing together in the same block. Our program was in its sophomore year and nearly double in size-- many of the kids, ages 11-15, were new faces this year, so we decided to emulate many of the events that were successful the first year. That included the canoe trip.

The day was muggy but not overly warm as we pulled into the livery. Storms were forecasted for later in the evening with the possibility of being severe, but my co-director Amanda-- and consequently, my best friend-- and I took one look at the thin clouds and opted to try to get the trip in. Neither of us wanted to spend our Friday with a bunch of kids that didn't get to go on their field trip-- especially if the rain never came.

Last year the kids started out complaining about how dirty the river water was. By the end of the trip, they were ankle-deep in mud awaiting their turn to catch the current and float downstream. None of them had ever been in a canoe before that day. Only a handful had returned for this trip. None of the newcomers had been on a river before.

Amanda and I decided that this year the teens needed paired off more to work on teamwork skills and problem-solving on their own. One adult took the lead, another took the middle, and Amanda and I took the sweep position. All in all, we had twenty-five teens on the water in ten canoes with four adults.

Quickly getting the hang of it, many of the canoes were soon just specks in the horizon, but a few had difficulties. One group in particular went from bank to bank stretching the six-mile trip into ten easily. Another got trapped behind every possible obstacle. Part of me itched to get the paddles going and just get downstream. The feeling of working the oars together and cutting through the water is like no other. As the sweep though, our job was to stay in the rear, so we did our best to stay behind the stragglers.

Most of the river was just a couple of feet deep. After showing them how to check the depth with their oars, they loosened up knowing that they could touch the bottom if need be. Regardless, all life jackets stayed on.

The copyright of the article Summer Fun-- with High Adventure Twist (Part One) in Youth Empowerment is owned by Barb Huff. Permission to republish Summer Fun-- with High Adventure Twist (Part One) in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.