Wilderness People in an Urban Setting…

A few years ago Wilderness Adventure at Eagle Landing received a phone call from Washington, DC. They were in need of our services. OK, so it wasn’t actually the Capital or President but it was the Society for Science and the Public, which hosts a program (sponsored by the Discovery Channel) for some of the smartest kids in the United States. We now help them out each year and we always look forward to it.

For the past year roughly 2000 middle school students had been creating science experiments and projects and this was the culmination of their efforts. They were competing for $40,000 in scholarships. These 2000 students were about to be narrowed down to 30 finalists who would move on to the final round of judging.

So…where does Wilderness Adventure come in? What does a Summer Adventure Camp have to do with a science fair?

The job our Retreat Center Staff Patrick, Julia, Dan, Sarah, and Chris was to prepare the students for their final round of the competition. During the final round students would be working together in teams of 6 on their final project/assignment. Most of these kids prefer to work alone, completing the projects, and taking all the credit. Working together was going to be a tough task. With dodge balls in hand our staff entered some of the nicest conference rooms they’d ever seen and tackled their hardest obstacle – kids that only like to study. After three hours it was declared “mission accomplished”. And as the parents entered the room they found that their reserved, studious children had transformed into crazy, sweaty kids that were working together.

What did we do? We started off with some large group de-inhibitors and team building initiatives to break down barriers and comfort zones…basically the plan was to get them laughing and to open up. Next we broke them into their groups of 6 and put them through a series of activities that would be useful for them in their final stage. In the end we had an initiative that stumped most at first, but once the code was cracked they moved quickly to finish their task. Overall they looked exhausted, yet ready for the next couple days of their competition.

Our work was done, and greatly appreciated by the staff of the convention. After a quick breakfast the next morning we handed out some summer camp information to our new friends, hopped in the minivan, and headed back to the beautiful mountains of Craig County.