6 brave 14-16 year old young men decided to take on the "call to adventure" on our last camp session and be part of our Rangers Program at Camp Rockmont. This program has been dead because of the lack of leadership for the last 3-4 summers. Bringing back a program that pushes people physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually....a program where you only spend a couple of nights on camp in a real bed...a program where you are taken out of your comfort zone in a way possibly never experienced...a program that challenges young men to take on adventure and to contribute to the community they live and take from...a program like that has been a bit of a challenge to bring back. Why should they learn to contribute when we look at teenagers as useless and make "growing up" look so boring? Why should they be pushed to do something different when us adults and parents have been sticking to the same routine year after year? When is the last time we have done something that made our palms sweat and our heart beat faster in the anticipation? When have we given of our time and service to give all our good stuff away? When is the last time you stood by a cliff, an ocean, a roadside, to watch the wonder of the sunset and encourage the people around you to experience that kind of wonder! What I am trying to say is to our surprise we had a difficult time to get young guys to sign up for this kind of program. These 6 guys who were part of the first of many Rangers sessions are forever changed in some great ways. They came in as 6 individual young men and learned to work as a unit of one. They left as dangerous men. Ready for challenge and adventure and equipped to give back to the community they live in.
We spent the last 12 days backpacking, white water canoeing, trail running, rock climbing, and having an "adventure day" which you would just have to talk to an alumni Ranger about that day to find out more details! The instructor for white water canoeing called these young guys "dangerous men". What a great thing for them! They stood up taller, puffed out their chest, and then they started contributing more to the group because they knew then they had something to give. They weren't useless. They were dangerous men.
Enjoy the pictures. You can see them all on our facebook page under Rockmont Rangers.
This is Leo's toe. He slipped on a rock and hit another rock with his big toe.
It bent the nail half way back ripping it from his skin.
OUCH!
Looking Glass Waterfall in Pisgah. We all jumped into this freezing water and got wet.
We literally sorted through tons of tomatoes at Manna Food Bank.
It was a smelly job, but we were glad to help out.
This is some chicken of the woods mushroom that we ate with our dinner later that night.
It seriously taste like chicken!
This is halfway into our backpacking section.
We found a bunch of wild blueberry bushes on the trail. Best part of my day!!
