My new goal is:
Develop a 5-day summer camp for 10-12 year olds that provides outdoor learning experiences that benefit active (perhaps hyper-active) children. The camp will incorporate lots of exercise, healthy diet that fuels continued exercise and problem-solving/learning activities.
Obstacles to achieving this goal:
- Time to do this for summer of 2016 is short
- Liability insurance and safety concerns very high
- No gear for some of the skills
Benefits from this goal:
- Daughter, a returning college student, has been a outdoor school counselor for three years and loves it. This is a way to keep her busy and productive this summer
- Extra money
- Develop channels/contacts and business plans for doing this on a broader scale year round
- Continuing research on healthy diet, exercise and the positive effects of nature on the ability to learn and grow
- Resources and Groups of People to Contact
- Climbing gyms around area
- Internet for general summer camp business issues
- Legal and medical resources (Ron and Jessica to start, research local help on internet)
- Mazamas, Inner City Outings - Sierra Club, Betties 360 and Sunnyside Environmental School
- Catalina Jean-Michel Cousteau Family Camp
- Nutrition research for ADHD and brain growth hormone and beneficial effects of exercise research
Plan of Action
- Develop curriculum (see intial attempt with Constraint prompt incorporated below)
- Research legal issues
- Research diet and medical issues
- Research local restrictions
- Develop business plan
- Marketing
Time deadline
ASAP so that can be started this summer
WHY?
Parents with busy work schedules find it difficult to keep children occupied in an intellectually stimulating, healthy and safe way during the summer. The best summer programs fill up fast. Not all kids are inspired by team sports camps or overnight camps. Finding a SAFE outdoor learning experience that inspires children and leaves them with lasting, great summer memories seems like an overwhelming task. Many parents feel guilty and want to give their the children the best summer experience possible.
Parents will trust this program based on my experience in other outdoor leadership programs for children: Mazamas, Betties 360. Experience volunteering in PPS and becoming a 4H leader to host rural Oregon students. On-going training in wilderness first aid and first-on-scene rescue experience with mountaineering accidents.
Parents want to provide the best summer experience possible for their children. Experience that instructs, inspires confidence and self-esteem, motivates kids to go outdoors and exercise more. This camp will build relationships through teamwork and a mutual concern for the environment.
Got summer camp?
Let your child dream big this summer.
Climb a mountain, scale a rocky crag, cross a crevasse.
Provide them with the opportunity to see the Columbia River Gorge the way Lewis and Clark did navigating uncharted territory, building shelters from the elements, cataloging new plants, and bartering for food, transportation and information.
An active day filled with exercise stimulates the mind and creates the need for fuel that not only provides needed calories but allows explorers to think clearly in challenging situations.
Nature can be a powerful teacher. The right shelter and good food turn a struggle into a joy. Food tastes better outdoors. A long hike to the top of a ridge doesn't have to be tiring, it can be inspiring... the view of snow-capped peaks and more ridges to discover another day.
CONSTRAINTS:
Low/no budget for gear requires development of a curriculum that requires imagination.
Each day of the camp starts with a theme
DAY 1: Climb a Mountain
Meet at base camp and start the day with training exercises specific to climbing glaciers
Obstacle course of ladders over "Crevasses", fixed rope line down stairs that children have to climb into (passing through protection), follow map across stream and bushwhack through bushes
Children develop tools for climbing over a glacier with 35°-40° slopes from cork, nails (dull), straps. Bamboo for ice ax. Review real gear mountain climbers use: Ice axe, crampons, snow shoes.
Hike up paths around reservoirs at Mt Tabor, view Mt Hood, try out home-made crampons and "ice axes"
Picnic under oak trees and then get some elevation going up and down stairs utilizing the techniques used to climb mountains.
Have children work together as team to navigate the same way down the mountain that we came up.
Prize for making it back down with no mistakes in a timely way.
DAY 2: Climb a crag
Meet at climbing gym or MMC
Warm up exercises specific to climbing vertical walls
Top rope with employees of gym and instructors belaying
Lunch at base camp and review expedition plans for next day, going over gear necessary. Have children determine what roles are necessary for a succesful expedition and how to share the work necessary.
DAY 3: Lewis and Clark Expedition
Meet at base camp
Warm up exercises will be low-key. Paddling motion sit ups; pack, weigh and carry backpacks over obstacle course
Determine roles: Scouts, Leaders, Navigators, Botanists, etc
Drive to Angel's Rest and hike.
Navigate and explore from top
DAY 4: Build a fort at Cannon Beach
Drive to beach
Exercise by running on beach and chasing waves
Build fort to protect from wind/rain.
DAY 5: Base Camp Party
Do favorite exercises from week. Make up some of their own
Obstacle course with winners and prizes
Games
Time constraints to develop this plan are obvious, it is almost summer!
Suzi! This is rad! It's so cool to see you move from your "shoulds" to your musts. And I think that a summer camp is a great effing idea.
ReplyDeleteA few things that you may want to consider:
• Insurance! This is a necessary cost that comes with these kinds of adventures. You may be able to get 4H or another organization to put your program on their insurance. Nevertheless, a consideration that will affect your cost and / or take time to put together.
• I recommend brainstorming this idea with your daughter. Working with family / friends can *seem* like a good idea, but without clear boundaries / discussions, it's easy for the most well-intentioned project to go awry. See what your daughter wants to get out of the experience as well as you.
• Equipment may be another expense. But again, if you can partner with another organization, then this may help to solve the challenge. And your daughter may know some resources for you as well.
• Summer is approaching quickly, so some folks may already have plans for June. So maybe think about July and August as targets, to give you some time to plan.
I super love this idea. Keep us posted on how it goes!!
Suzi,
ReplyDeleteBased on the short time that I have talked to you... I think this would be an awesome idea and that you would be a great person to take on something like this.
Since this summer is quickly approaching, what about organizing single days here and there? It's a lot of work to plan for 5 days in a row. What if you had one day each week? That would still be very helpful to parents. There might also be some parents who only want to pay for two days rather than a whole week straight.
Insurance and liabilities sound like the biggest problem. Is it as simple as copying someone else's liability waiver and re-writing some things for your activity?
Suzi,
ReplyDeleteI think partnering is a great place to start - and to think of it is a discoverable action step can motivate you to reach out now and to a lot of people - you might find "amazing" if you keep an attitude of curiosity. For example if you contact an organization that has a summer camp already they might be willing to have you as a referral for those students that got shut out due to large enrollments? Also launching it in your personal network will help a ton and could be the folks to partake in the one day lighting sessions that Anton suggested.
You also might look at universities or community colleges that have student activity offices or volunteer programs to gather college kids looking for summer work or volunteer gigs.
Wow! My observations
ReplyDelete1. I didn't get a sense of your Simon Sinek WHY. What's the internal drive that you can articulate succinctly and powerfully that people can connect to and then trust you with their kids?
2. With summer so close, I'm wondering if you can make this summer a pilot program with the real goal of next summer. Consider this an information-gathering and test. Benefit: if you think of them as one-offs, you can do them on weekends in the fall winter and spring.
3. In other words, is summer camp an artificial constraint? Can you do it this summer (and you'll have to jam to do it!) but not limit yourself to summer?
4. You have a lot of resources and allies. You know what that means? The more you talk about it, the more people enlist into your idea, the easier it'll get. The hard part is now. But if you can enlist others (go back to prompt 2), you're going to build momentum.
You've come so far.