WHAT ADVENTURE GUIDES GAVE TO ME AND MY SON
Danielle Kempa from the Lake Highlands YMCA sits down to talk about her and her son’s experience with Adventure Guides. Her story dives deeper into the impact Adventure Guides has had on their relationship and the lessons they both learned throughout the program.
“I remember [my first encounter with] the Y as a young child as it always being a safe place. I was in and out of foster care and the Big Brothers Big Sisters program would take us to the Y for swimming and sports. Later on, as an adult I taught water aerobics for seniors up in Portland, Maine which was a great experience and a way for me to give back to the Y by teaching classes.
Fast forward 20 years later and I have my second set of kids, a divorce I didn’t plan, and two really hurt children from a neglectful and alcoholic father. My son, Benjamin, started at Zion Lutheran School in first grade and that is where I first heard about the Adventure Guides program. My husband and son were asked to join the other 11 boys in the class who made up a troop. My husband was not interested in participating so I asked if I could come and participate as a mom. I am the only mom out at the camp outs with 200 plus boys and fathers and everyone couldn’t be more welcoming. The [staff and leaders] are always kind enough to place us in a cabin close enough to our group so my son could be right there with [everyone] and not be isolated in a cabin father away, which helped make having his mom be there feel normal.
The Y provides good, positive male role models for my son in the form of Adventure Guides. This program taught him [so many different lessons] from how to shake a hand to learning how to give to others. During one of our campouts in the Arbuckle Mountains of Oklahoma, the campsite we stayed out has a program in which the kids can find “gold” scattered along the trails that they get really excited to find and keep. The “gold” is actually part of the program to help the surrounding community of the Arbuckle Mountains, in which this community has a specialty store they can use the “gold” to buy basic needs. Towards the end of the weekend once all the kids have found their gold, we explain to them the importance of giving the gold to those who need it more. For my son, Benjamin, who found such joy from something as precious as this “gold” and was still able to give it away to someone who needs it more was eye opening to see. All the kids learn at a young age to give away their gold for something bigger than themselves. They learn that together, one little piece from each of them can make a huge difference.
The physical dependence of dangerous situations in a controlled environment has made my relationship with Benjamin so much stronger. There are many times on the hike we have to work together by holding onto each other to either cross the river or hike up the mountain. When learning how to shoot the BB gun, we are respecting each other by making sure the range is safe and our gun is set up safely, and I am trusting him, and he is seeing that trust. Even when we are just sitting and taking in the peace and quietness of the nature around us, we have trust in each other to talk about deeper and more global ideas that we may not have in our day to day life. As a third grader, I think it’s good that he’s able to think of these more global and bigger issues. My son and I have a trust level that’s so much deeper because of Adventure Guides.
This program is offering a lot more than we can put into words, it really is. After my ex-husband stopped paying child support, the generosity that we received after falling into hard times was through the Y sponsoring us at our last camp out. That was really, really amazing to us because we would not have been able to afford to attend this last camp out and this is the last year for Benjamin in Adventure Guides. He has been participating in Adventure Guides for three years and now that he has aged out, we are looking forward to what is to come next.”
We want to thank Danielle for taking the time to share her Adventure Guides story and to all the parents and staff who continue to make Adventure Guides a positive and impactful program!