As promised, here's the follow up from the post early this week about four other ICO groups doing amazing work outdoors on special trips in amazing places nationwide!
Raleigh ICO leaders took nine youth from the Wake County Heritage Park Learning Center to Fort Fisher State Park and Aquarium for a coastal experience and an overnight “sleeping with the fishes” program at the aquarium. The youth, most of whom have never seen the ocean before, got to experience swimming, sand and more swimming! In the early evening they participated in the “Sleeping with the Fishes” environmental educational experience at the aquarium, where the group spent the night in the aquarium in front of the large shark tank. They participated in a program about reptiles and sharks, made t-shirts with an ancient Japanese fish printing method, and got a private aquarium tour the next morning. In talking about the beach environment, Tabion, one of the youth, reacted with surprise: “We swam in the Atlantic Ocean??!! I thought we were swimming at Fort Fisher, not the ocean!!!”
Seattle ICO leaders took 12 students from Washington Middle School on their final outing of the school year to Mt. Saint Helens for an overnight camping adventure. The students, many of whom are new to Seattle, coming from northern and eastern Africa and Southeast Asia, have had introductory experiences with ICO, including walking through forests, putting on hiking boots, and paddling a canoe. This camping trip helped instill confidence and teamwork, learning the skill sets needed to set up tents, assist with camp chores, and overcome fears of trying something new. Only two of the participants had slept in a tent before this outing. The group drove to Mt. Saint Helen’s Volcanic National Monument on Saturday and, although the mountain remained shrouded in cloud cover the entire weekend, it the group hiked the Hummocks Trail and explored the different microclimates and ecosystems created post-eruption. The group then camped in the Lewis River Valley, which provides access to ten miles of hiking trails, waterfalls, and trout streams. Setting up camp, cooking, learning about “leave no trace” ethics and proper etiquette in the woods, plus a night hike through an old growth Douglass fir forest followed by a game of “capture the flag” by headlamps, made for a very full day. The next morning, the group packed up camp and ventured to Ape Caves, an underground series of lava tubes 2.6 miles long dating from a flow that occurred roughly 2,000 years ago. The students had headlamps and got to experience challenging spelunking, scrambling over approximately 27 boulder piles and scaling an 8-foot high lava wall, all while learning about the geology and power of a volcano. After the strenuous morning, most of the kids slept all the way back to Seattle. A highlight of the trip for the teachers who came along was to see so many of their “hyperactive” classroom kids engaging and exerting themselves to the point of stillness. This was truly a special and memorable outing for these students, who will be eager to be part of ICO trips in the new school year.
Los Angeles ICO took 28 students from the School for the Visual Arts and Humanities and Los Angeles Academy of Arts and Enterprise on a two-hour Level II rafting adventure along the Kern River. Along with the expert guides from River’s End Rafting and Adventure Company, the students learned the basics of paddling a raft safely and working together as a team to navigate the river. Trip highlights included going down three rapids, swimming in the river, and a variety of water games. This special outing was a treat for these urban kids who primarily go hiking with ICO during the school year.
Nashville ICO spent a weekend canoeing and kayaking down the scenic Duck River near Columbia, Tennessee. Fifteen students—refugees from Somalia and The Congo—from Catholic Charities’ Refugee Youth Program were very eager to see the sights of their new home, and the ICO leaders were very happy to show them as much as they could about the natural world outside the confines of the housing projects where most of them currently live. This special outing included a morning of paddling, swimming, and lunch, and then paddling to a primitive campground for an overnight adventure. The teens cooked dinner over a fire, set up tents, and slept well. After fixing a camp breakfast in the morning, they packed up their gear and paddled back to the put-in site. The weekend provided the ICO leaders an opportunity to teach the teens how to canoe or kayak (whichever they chose) and experience a typical American summer day of swimming, paddling, and relaxing as they let the current pull them down the river.