PATH

June 18th, 2009

PATH

When trying to explain personal integrity or teamwork, we can always utilize teambuilding games, personal examples, and heroes of our past. However, there is no teacher like nature that so poetically and pricelessly demonstrates the power of individual development and communal cooperation.

We developed P.A.T.H. (Pioneer Adventure Teambuilding Hike) knowing that nature is the supreme classroom to develop team and individual morals, values, and principles. The Pioneers are the oldest group of kids at Circle F Dude Ranch Camp, located off the 60 freeway in Lake Wales FL.

The girls and boys have separate P.A.T.H. excursions and spend the night on part of the 500 acres that sits behind the main part of Circle F Dude Ranch.

They begin the hike at the office, where the rule of “one positive comment for every negative comment” is explained. If we can keep the kids looking at the positive from the beginning, they are much more likely to see the other lessons that nature will teach them along the way.

We then head to the north side of the lake, walking in an area where most of the campers have never been. The sun shines from the west side as we curve around the 40-acre body of water. The live oaks common to this area hang overhead and shade our path.

We play a few teambuilding games and talk about reflecting on ourselves, and what it means to have integrity. Each tree has its own purpose in life- to grow, to provide nutrients for the earth, to create a forest. This gives us the opportunity to pose the question; what is your purpose?

We move into the back acreage hiking through a sugar sand trail and a live-oak canopy. The mile long trek through the foliage always brings time to talk about the snake trails through the sand, the raccoon paws, and the beautiful variations of spider webs strewn across the tress, or wrapped around wayward branches. The kids are always fascinated that they are going to be living with these creatures, and that we all use the same land to survive.

Arriving in a clearing we begin some more games, integrating the need for teamwork and communication in everything that we do.

We hike through the forest once again, and head towards an open pine area. We build our own shelters from tarps, our own fire out of dead, down, and detached wood, and cook our own food. The need for community and cooperation is emphasized here as we settle down for the night, filled with food and tired from the hiking. Everyone has much to ponder; personal integrity, teamwork, and community, exemplified to us through the beauty and wonder of nature here on Circle F property.