With the advent of social media, a child is quite often not exactly “here” even if he/she is within arm’s reach, which is a challenge adventure programs can directly address.
“Adventure programs are based around activities like hiking, camping and surfing, for instance, but the potential they have goes far beyond developing those related skills,” said New Heights Executive Director Tracey Tucker.
Longtime Adventure Coordinator at New Heights, Sally Gregory agrees with Tucker and said extended adventure trips, such as their Cape Cod Surfing Safari & Adirondack Canoeing Expedition this coming summer, are particularly suited to help kids learn valuable life lessons.
“When students get out on these kind of expeditions, they are stripped absolutely bare—no social media, cars, music, family, friends, girl or boyfriends, or comforts of home,” she said. “Even the food is different and the clothes are different. All that's left is the raw honesty of each individual.”
In creating opportunities for youth to reveal such raw honesty, Gregory said she and her staff are in “the same boat.”
“We are right alongside the kids revealing our own vulnerabilities and our real selves,” she added. “It’s developmentally important kids see that so they can identify with you as the adult mentor and guide.”
Due to the nature of adventure programs—Gregory said they are in fact physically, emotionally and mentally challenging—she noted kids are in fact more apt to take direction and listen to those around them.
“Adventure mandates that you look outside yourself and not only see the big picture of your natural surroundings, but that you pay attention to the needs of those in your group and everyone else around you,” she said. “Kids can't help but reach out to a 70 year old hiker hiking the same trail who may need a little help on the last step or two.”
In debunking a myth about such programming, she said “adventure” does not refer to any sort of false machismo.
“Adventure mandates our respect,” she said. “There is no such thing as ‘conquering a mountain or a wave.’ That is really not what it is about at all. We climb mountains, ride waves, respect them, love them, play on them and in them, sometimes fear them—but we never ‘conquer.’”
If Gregory was to distill all that youth learn in the program into two primary skillsets, she said they would be empathy and vulnerability.
“Real people are born when normal guarded people access their real selves—their heart and soul,” she said. “The thing that makes them tell their truth while staring into a fire, even if it feels a little, or a lot, uncomfortable. The thing that allows a 16 year old boy to walk across a circle of peers and hug an 18 year old boy who is crying because of a recent loss.”
Citing Gregory’s 20-plus years’ experience leading such programs at New Heights, Tucker said she especially enjoys seeing the long-term impact they have had on participants.
“Every summer and during winter breaks when families are visiting one another, we see former participants come by and seek Sally out and thank her for all she did for them,” Tucker noted. “It is the kind of impact we want to have on every participant that comes through here.”
Deflecting any sort of praise for her past work, Gregory said she instead focuses on the present.
“Who can I reach today?” she rhetorically asked. “What can I do better? What can I change? I love what we do here and believe we are changing lives one adventure at a time. Sounds corny, but it turns out there is more truth to it than poetry—it’s what makes me love what we are doing here.”
To learn about New Heights in Portsmouth and Exeter, visit www.newheightsonline.org.
