Many of the leaders are complete novices to the outdoors. After just a few days of training, however, they’re able to take their new technical and leadership skills back to the youth they serve. YOP then provides them with a whole range of support services to help make outdoor trips possible: gear—from sleeping bags and tents to water bottles; discounts on lodging; advanced skills workshops; trip planning assistance; and networking opportunities.
YOP is the resource center and link-up for inner-city groups, providing training for their staff and opportunities for the kids. And, having completed YOP’s Outdoor Leadership Training, the Green Reach staff was ready to bring their charges to Mohican for their first adventure.
For most of the students in the program, says Program Director Tracey Patterson, “this is the only time in the year they leave the city and the first time that many see wildlife and stars.” The trip opens them up to new experiences that are at once fun, peaceful, and scary, she says, and offers them a chance to face their fears in a positive atmosphere.
Using this model, kids are given a shot at shaking off their city personas and getting a feel for the outdoors at Mohican—through which 10,000 hikers and family groups pass each summer—and other AMC program sites.
During the weekend, leaders provide a host of outdoor experiences and trust-building games. One of them, “Radioactive Lava Field,” starts with a blindfolded camper trying to negotiate an area strewn with camping equipment by following instructions shouted from the sidelines. In another activity, campers line up on a log in the woods and try to change places without falling off.
For now, kids in a variety of T-shirts and maybe two dozen styles of sneakers are scurrying around the parking lot like a swarm of displaced, but cool-acting, dragonflies. They are quickly directed to Trails End Lodge, which will house the girls for the first night and the boys for the second, as each gender takes a turn trying to fall asleep on the ground. This brings up a question: “Where would you rather pitch a tent, out here or in Central Park?”
A friendly fifth-grader named Lawrence West is quick with an answer. “In Central Park,” he says. “It’s a lot safer there.”
On their first overnight in the outdoors, these polite, curious kids are discovering new risks and hazards in stark contrast to what they would encounter in Brooklyn. Here, they risk contracting poison ivy, encountering a bear, or getting stung by a bee. They might disturb a rattlesnake or lose their way in the woods. This weekend, they are learning how to be confident in the face of those dangers. “I’m scared to go to the bathroom at night,” one of them says on the second day, glancing from the cabin to the dining lodge—where the bathrooms are—about 100 yards away.
This is a group that is worldly and bright, but not experienced in the ways of the woods. Their parents have come from Honduras, Mexico, India, Belize, and Egypt to work and raise kids in the United States. They may speak several languages, but few have ever wandered outdoors with bare feet.
That is all about to change. Day One starts with lunch and announcements. Nicoloff lays down a few rules about bears, snakes, plants, and personal responsibility. He also begins the orientation to wilderness stewardship. “Take only photographs; leave only footprints,” he says. The children are instructed in Leave No Trace ethics from the beginning.
Photo by Anthony Hall.
