And of course there’s more to the trips than hard labor. Tano Holmes, a 17-year-old Venturer who has joined English several times, recalls a seven-mile showshoe trek through two feet of powder. When the group arrived at the hut, “we went sledding down the extremely steep hill nearby on our avalanche shovels,” he says. “When David climbed that hill to the hut, he removed his hat, and steam billowed off of his head, to the amusement of all the group members.”

Ultimately, English explains, it’s moments of joviality like this one, as well as the leadership of their peers, that get young people over the hurdles. He recalls a trip last fall to the Berk­shires with a young participant who was on his first long hike. “He struggled a lot, but the other kids gave him some good pep talks. The hike took us a long time, but the beauty of it was that it was his peers and not the adults that really helped him get through it,” he says. “That’s really our goal: to see kids helping each other out. It doesn’t mean as much coming from me as from another kid.”

Chapter Family Programs

Ed Fanjoy can apply English’s principles of group dynamics not only to teens but to adults as well. For years, he has led trips through the Worcester Chapter for groups of mixed ages, rang­ing from short evening bike rides to four-day backpacking excur­sions in the White Mountains. His favorite is an annual weekend at Tully Lake in Royalston, Mass., for about 30 people, including his own family. “People from all over the world join us,” he says. “I’ve led groups that included natives of Belgium, Australia, Ger­many, Israel, and India who joined AMC after moving to the U.S. specifically to meet like-minded people.”

Ed and his wife, Patrice, met and courted over a series of AMC trips he led. Their first child was born on a day they nor­mally take an annual bike trip on Martha’s Vineyard with AMC friends, and one of the first phone calls they made announc­ing the baby’s arrival was to those friends. On baby Pam’s first birthday, Ed and Patrice brought her on that very same Martha’s Vineyard bike trip.

Getting to know the diversity of people on a typical AMC trip has broadened the world considerably for the couple’s two daughters, now ages 7 and 8, Ed Fanjoy says. “By leading these groups, we expose our children to a diversity of cultures and na­tionalities, while we also get to show people from all over the world the joys of New England’s outdoors. I remember one trip on which we had an American obstetrician, an Israeli pediatri­cian, and an Indian ER physician all sitting around the same campfire. Then the wife of the Indian doctor started singing a lullaby in Hindi. We all found it so beautiful. On the next day’s hike, we showed them redwing blackbirds, blue herons, beaver dams…all kinds of things that they hadn’t seen where they came from. It makes my daughters realize how big the world is.”

There are additional benefits to gathering children and adults who may not know each other, Fanjoy observes. “I used to lead groups of adult singles, and I would see them getting very competitive with each other as far as athletic abilities. With children along, adults tend to be better behaved in that respect, and also, all the adults work together to keep an eye on all the kids,” he says. “Children have the chance to observe adults be­having wholesomely and collaboratively, in roles other than that of teachers and parents.” Once a man who brought his guitar taught some chords to all the children in the group; frequently Patrice, who loves to fish, impresses the kids with an impromptu demonstration of how to catch, clean, and cook a fish. “Every experience is new when you add kids to the mix,” Fanjoy says with a laugh.

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