Healthy Communities • YMCA Camps and Outdoor Education • YMCA Youth Programs
Using adventure to build leaders
11 May 2016 - by Ruth Mills
YMCA Camp Pine Crest has been offering memorable wilderness experiences for children and youth since 1910. While a lot has changed over the past 100 years, Pine Crest has remained dedicated to the value of wilderness camping trips for youth.
A central component of our leadership programs, Pine Crest uses extended camping trips as a tool to teach teens about knowing themselves and becoming leaders. Most importantly, each wilderness trip gives our participants opportunities to refine and practice their leadership skills in a context where they feel comfortable with their peers but challenged by their environment.
At least that is what Heron Ling says about the leadership programs she has participated in with Camp Pine Crest. Her camping trips with Pine Crest have been “my most challenging experiences, but it is the most fulfilling thing anyone could do,” she says.
Heron knows of what she speaks based on some of the incredible experiences she has had, including a 35-day white-water canoe trip on the Kazan River in Nunavut last summer.
While on these trips, Heron has seen incredible Canadian landscapes that have left her in awe. Exposure to these amazing natural surroundings have helped her appreciate life by realizing how little she needs to be happy. Heron speaks about feeling appreciative and humbled by the beauty she has seen.
Heron added that her wilderness camping experiences have had tangible benefits at home too. Living in close quarters with a group of teens has taught her to build strong friendships. She also loves that “employers like to see experiences like that on my resume.”
Heron’s experiences are not unique. Impact studies conducted by the YMCA continue to demonstrate that measures of leadership development like problem solving, teamwork, goal-setting and conflict resolution improve significantly in Pine Crest’s leadership participants.
Although she was hesitant when signing up for her first Adventure Leadership program, now Heron’s advice to anyone considering a program like this is “do it!”
YMCA Camp Pine Crest offers various types of wilderness experiences including hiking, white water canoeing, flat water canoeing, and sea kayaking.
To learn more, visit www.camppinecrest.ca or contact Pine Crest anytime at 1-877-878-9622.
A central component of our leadership programs, Pine Crest uses extended camping trips as a tool to teach teens about knowing themselves and becoming leaders. Most importantly, each wilderness trip gives our participants opportunities to refine and practice their leadership skills in a context where they feel comfortable with their peers but challenged by their environment.
At least that is what Heron Ling says about the leadership programs she has participated in with Camp Pine Crest. Her camping trips with Pine Crest have been “my most challenging experiences, but it is the most fulfilling thing anyone could do,” she says.
Heron knows of what she speaks based on some of the incredible experiences she has had, including a 35-day white-water canoe trip on the Kazan River in Nunavut last summer.
While on these trips, Heron has seen incredible Canadian landscapes that have left her in awe. Exposure to these amazing natural surroundings have helped her appreciate life by realizing how little she needs to be happy. Heron speaks about feeling appreciative and humbled by the beauty she has seen.
Heron added that her wilderness camping experiences have had tangible benefits at home too. Living in close quarters with a group of teens has taught her to build strong friendships. She also loves that “employers like to see experiences like that on my resume.”
Heron’s experiences are not unique. Impact studies conducted by the YMCA continue to demonstrate that measures of leadership development like problem solving, teamwork, goal-setting and conflict resolution improve significantly in Pine Crest’s leadership participants.
Although she was hesitant when signing up for her first Adventure Leadership program, now Heron’s advice to anyone considering a program like this is “do it!”
YMCA Camp Pine Crest offers various types of wilderness experiences including hiking, white water canoeing, flat water canoeing, and sea kayaking.
To learn more, visit www.camppinecrest.ca or contact Pine Crest anytime at 1-877-878-9622.
