The 2016 National Summit in the World Series Champions' Town

On November second, 14  people from OEN Program Member organizations as far away as Seattle, Los Angeles and Boston, flew into Chicago on a truly crazy first night of our 3rd annual National Summit. Not only did the Cubs win the world series, but both Chicago airports closed briefly (thunderstorms), causing Summit attendees to be delayed for as much as five hours.  But they got there... and 108 years after the last time they won it the so did the Cubs!  

This year's Summit was extraordinary in many ways; our first outside the Bay Area, our first large public event, with 100 people in attendance in downtown Chicago, and our first foray into building shared best practices related to our work.  This last piece not only gives us a chance to compare our programmatic work and learn from one another, but also gives new organizations from around the country hoping to use our shared train-and-support model a set of programmatic structures, policies and pedagogical beliefs to use from the start. 

The Summit was hosted at Camp Sullivan, one of the five new campgrounds run by the Forest Preserves of Cook County, and the home of their gear library and training program. Huge thanks goes out to all the staff there that made it possible.  The campground is about 45 minutes from downtown, and when the Cubs' celebration parade got scheduled on Friday, ending less than a mile from our evening event site, we were worried.   

See more pictures as well as video from the Summit visit our Facebook page. 

Would road closures, traffic and what turned into 5 million people (yes, 5m!) keep attendees from coming to our reception?  They did not!  Chicago Camps went on without a hitch!  

One of the goals of the Summit was to work with local partners, bring together the outdoor education and recreation community and celebrate the success of our local member organizations.  We could not be more pleased at the success we had in hitting our mark!  

Thanks to our amazing host committee and generous sponsors including The Field Museum, REI, Columbia, LL Bean, Adventures Accessed, The National Park Service and Billy Casper Golf, we raised $5,000 for a scholarship fund to get Chicago youth outdoors in 2017.  And we shone a spotlight on the two new programs run by the Chicago Park District and the Forest Preserves of Cook County, who collectively have reached over 700 young people in 2016.  We even got a chance to climb on Saturday at First Ascent Climbing, who bought the first round at the local tap room to boot. Cheers to a terrific Summit! 

Privilege, 100 feet Up a Tree

The 8th Graders. Opening circle at Outdoor Education camp. Day 1 of 5, immersed in wilderness. 

I drove my daughter and her eight grade, private school classmates to outdoor education camp last week. I was very happy about this, and left after staying the first night feeling extremely grateful that she gets to have this week outdoors. She loved it. Really loved it. Most kids in the US don’t get this chance.  In fact, Tim, the founder of the school, a passionate, grizzled outdoorsman and nature photographer urged the kids’ sense of gratitude, during his welcome speech by telling them “Appreciate this. Not one public school teacher has been able to make this happen, not one.”

But why is this camp experience, sleeping and eating outside, getting dirty and sweaty and freezing cold dipping in a mountain stream, such a privilege?  In large part because they get to build a connection, maybe a deep connection, to nature and all of her benefits to health and well being.  They are fully immersed in it.  They use all their senses, splash in an icy mountain stream, and see the whole Milky Way, and get to experience how small we really all are in the face of the billion stars, and a culture that tells us we humans can solve all our problems with technology. Some of them will come back changed. 

For most, the lessons will steep, and percolate up over time. “Tell me I’m wrong, but my feeling is that your generation is too soft” Tim continues. What he wanted was for the kids to know they could push; get dirty, bruised and scraped, and that despite the risk of temporary pain, they’d be OK.  Maybe its called “building character”.  A new favorite book I read this summer- Barbarian Days, from William Finnigan ponders this question of testing one’s self. He writes about his life as a surfer, and what the ocean meant to him as a young boy.

“Waves were the playing field…the object of your deepest desire and adoration. The ocean was like an uncaring God, endlessly dangerous, power beyond measure. And yet you were expected, even as a kid, to take its measure every day. You were required- this was essential, a matter of survival- to know your limits, both physical and emotional. But how could you know your limits unless you tested them? And if you failed the test?”

— William Finnigan

My daughter, and her classmates benefit from the class privilege that allows them to test their limits.  But this is what teenagers are meant to do. So many teens, who don’t have the chance to test themselves taking physical and emotional risks with one another in nature, often take other risks.  For example, drugs, crime and unsafe sex to name a few within a long list of self-destructive possibilities. These head towards powerful, sometimes life altering negative consequences.

There are so many reasons why I believe outdoor education should be something all kids get a chance do. And there’s now a boatload of evidence that shows it supports success in multiple developmental realms, from a myriad of academic measures to those within the realm of physical and psychological health.  Having a chance to test limits, in nature this way shouldn’t be a privilege, but rather it is, what Rich Louv calls it when he is at his most passionate: a birthright.

In that opening, welcome speech the kids were told “You’ll climb a tree, 100 feet off the ground”, and I couldn’t get it out of my head as I drove south, away from Mt. Shasta, and towards the city. I kept imagining my 13-year old daughter high in a tree, testing, maybe one more branch higher. 

The students homes for the week.  Bark teepees. 

Amanda was our Summer Champion!

This past summer, we had the support of one terrific 19 year old.  Amanda Champion worked hard, with both Outdoors Empowered Network and our Bay Area Program Member- Bay Area Wilderness Training.  Here's a little of what she had to say about her experience.

Why we do it: Connecting people with people and people with gear.

When I am working at Bay Area Wilderness Training, I get to see some of the impacts that our work has on the community. Talking with people returning or picking up their outdoor gear gives me a little taste of the wonders and surprises that happen when people get outside. The work is not easy (when people return tents, we have to set them all up and take them all down to check for damage), but seeing the impact and sheer numbers of sleeping bags that have been filled with children who had never gone camping is worth it. There is nothing more satisfying than knowing that you made a direct positive impact on the lives of people in your community through your hard work!

To read her full Blog Post and read why she had a kitten in her hand, follow the link!  http://blogs.whitman.edu/sec/2016/07/13/summer-intern-amanda-champion-19-get-kids-outside-with-bay-area-wilderness-training-the-outdoors-empowered-network-in-san-francisco-ca/ 

Chicago Park District is a GO!

With a forecast of 41°F, rain and wind (perfect hypothermia weather), this Californian in the Chicago mix was a little worried that the crew we had signed up for the first ChicaGo Explorers Front Country Leadership Training might not brave the elements to join us. Instead, 16 youth workers, parks and rec staff, community activists, social scientists and teachers showed up with smiles and true Midwestern grit.  Over the next two days together on Northerly Island, a hidden gem of the Chicago Park District in Lake Michigan, we shared skills, strategies, and tips to support the vision of all to connect Chicago’s youth with the outdoors.

What the Chicago Park District is beginning through the ChicaGo Explorers Program is no small thing.  As one of the nation’s largest park districts, they are making an important statement that we can go beyond basketball and yoga in our parks.  As part of the program, the Park District has launched a gear library, creatively housed in a shipping container on Northerly Island, which contains gear that will be used by these trainees to get youth outdoors.  Gear is one of the main obstacles keeping many youth from camping. This Gear Library will provide high quality apparel, sleeping bags, tents, etc, that will enable youth to camp under that Milky Way – most of them, for the first time.

Outdoors Empowered Network is thrilled to have supported the Chicago Park District in launching this new program!  

Big thanks to Therm-A-Rest and local REI Stores for supporting the effort!