June 26, 2006

Camp Pemi in the House

We had a great start to our summer Burleigh Mountain programs with a visit from the CIT's at Camp Pemi. Ted and I spent the afternoon together working on their leadership skills and seeing how they would work together on the Alpine Tower. They reported that it was great for them to spend time together bonding before all the campers arrived.

I've been facilitating mute line up's of various sorts over the years but I was surprised to see a new take on this old activity. Ted had them line up by birth date so some of the participants programed the date on their watches. Clever!
They also attempted many of the tried and true methods as you can see.
From there we went to the Alpine Tower. I was impressed how the students came together from the goofing of the earlier activity to the determined togetherness of the climb.

There was definately some light moments still but it was interesting to see this group start to come together.

Hillary at Camp Pemi remarked that it was a valuable experience for her as well to see what kind of leaders she was going to be working with for the summer. I hadn't considered that angle, not only were the students learning about each other but Hillary was getting a jump start on her management of them as well.
I liked how the students were able to quickly take over operations of the climb such as teaching the figure eight knot (I checked them all of course) and deciding who was climbing and who was belaying.
I would say if this short program is any idication this group of CIT's will do really well this year. Great working with you!

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