The weekend of Nov 15-16, certified leaders and new volunteers from ICO joined staff members of CampInteractive to lead sixteen awesome 10th graders on an overnight camping trip to Briarcliff Manor, NY. A big shout out to Doug Rhode and his family, our hosts, and their beautiful property! This program would not have been possible without Doug’s hospitality and his active participation in all aspects of the weekend.
The weekend began with packing and organizing the vans, some group ice-breaker activities, and a thirty-minute road trip north. After a good discussion of backpack necessities and outdoor leadership skills we embarked on a sunny afternoon hike in Rockefeller State Park. The CI kids took on trail leadership roles to practice navigating, staying hydrated, and keeping the group together. We had lunch and an orienteering lesson at Spook Rock then headed back to camp.
After the hike, the CI kids worked together to make dinner and set up all the tents. Doug took a few students on a garden tour, where they picked some veggies for everyone to try. There was lots of basketball in the barn loft, and we all got to try out the zip line and the rope swing on the property. Both were a little scary at first, and it was great to see the support from the group as kids and leaders conquered their fears! Later in the evening we had a campfire complete with s’mores and an impromptu dance-off, and the kids camped out in their tents, many of them for the first time.
At CampInteractive students get to have outdoor leadership experiences while developing their tech skills, and they did this through a data analysis project to determine which NYC Borough is the greenest. Bach and Jamie prepared a lesson and provided data sets to the students, who then worked in teams to produce visual representations of the data and present their findings to Doug and the rest of the group. Doug’s barn made a very comfy setting for this project, and as a Google software engineer he had some great questions and advice for the students.
A special thanks to Doug for making his property available for an amazing weekend!