The students of the Advanced Ropes Course class at Memorial High School have been coming to Horizons for an overnight adventure field trip for years. This year was almost canceled due to lack of funding.
Their teacher encouraged them to advocate for themselves. With the help of a few family donors and a discount offered by Horizons Adventure Director Phil Bramley, they were able to experience their overnight adventure at Horizons, packed with two days of rappelling and challenge course activities.
“The overnight at Horizons was awesome. It brought us so much closer. There are so many people I never talked to before taking this class. You develop a sense of trust in your classmates through belaying and supporting each other,” said Rowan Vanks.
“With the overnight specifically, we got to spend so much time together. We were basically living together and cooking together, and we got to know each other so much better than just a normal day in class. I don’t think that would’ve happened without our overnight at Horizons,” said Daniela Enriuez.
“You develop a sense of community by taking a class like this. We support and encourage each other, and going to Horizons only brought us closer,” shared Sophie Wickman.
“Before this class, I wasn’t a risk taker, and doing the challenge courses has taught me to get out of my comfort zone and realize that I can do difficult things,” said Lily Wickman. It was a sentiment shared by the entire group.
We are so thankful for their teacher, Jason Rogers, and his commitment to his students by providing an overnight adventure field trip to Horizons. Without his passion and dedication to the lifelong benefits of challenge courses, experiences like this would cease to exist and, in fact, almost didn’t happen this year because of budget problems.
If you want to ensure that students continue to have these life-changing experiences through adventure programming, please consider participating or donating to the Annual Bethel Horizons Bike-A-Thon that takes place the first weekend of June. We never want budget cuts or financial limitations to get in the way of students having transformational experiences in nature.