Camps provide outdoor learning

There is a great exodus in the world today. After COVID-19 struck so many people in so many ways, a great number of Americans have begun to re-evaluate the way they live their lives. The people are coming out to the country and moving away from big cities. As they do, they are beginning to realize the way of life lived for many years by those who call Montana home.

However, there are many Montana youths who have not had the opportunity to experience the outdoors in the same way many outsiders will get to. These opportunities have been lost whether to sour social circumstances, to life lived by busy parents or simply to the way life is lived by most in 2021; with technology as the focus.

There is a nonprofit combating this and working hard to get Montana youth outside. Project ASCENT is an organization based out of Thompson Falls striving to give youth the opportunity to experience the outdoors in a way many of them could never have imagined they would be capable of. The group does all this, at no charge to participants or their families.

Project ASCENT hosts five camps throughout the summer, each three to five days in length and varied in the experiences they provide. Two of these are the flagship camps, which take participants on five-day backpacking journeys into the mountains around Sanders County. Throughout the trips participants learn teamwork, self-reliance, how to pack a bag and set up a tent, how to cook for themselves and clean up after themselves, how to identify a great number of plant and animal species, how to appreciate the wilderness and partake in the outdoors without taking too much from the outdoors and many more skills that directly translate into their lives. According to 14-year-old James Ovitt, a participant who went on both a backpacking trip and a Bull River camping trip, said, "We learn quite a bit, even though we were mostly just camping. Plus, you got to take some risks, where you didn't have to do it unless you were comfortable. It gives you a chance to see if you like it."

Each camp accepts up to 10 youths and employs two well-trained volunteer field instructors. The instructors set the tone for the adventure, and their well-groomed relationship inspires the participants to form the same kind of relationship with their peers. This approach is unique among camp programs and shows youth a different kind of leadership. This kind takes patience and trust and requires two field instructors to have great maturity, absolute confidence in one another, a deep friendship and a mutual love for the outdoors.

The youth accepted into the camps are given no prerequisites other than a basic clean bill of health and proof of Montana residency. No child is turned away or accepted based on religion, family income, or lifestyle. When they get into the outdoors, all their equipment is the same and the natural experience of being outdoors levels the playing field. "You get to learn more about other people who aren't from where you are," said Ovitt. Participants get to know one another and hear and learn from the experiences of each other. This gives them the unique lesson of mutual experience, even though they may be from different walks of life. This affords them an appreciation for each other, no matter where they each come from, that carries on into their lives when they leave camp. Many participants want to return year after year and make lifelong friends throughout the process. They maintain these friendships even though they may continue to have critically different world views.

During the camps youth are given the opportunity to not only take in these experiences, but to reflect on them at the end of each day. The organization employs its own campfire talk prompt they call "a rose, a bud and a thorn." The conversation works its way around the group and participants speak on experiences during the day that they held close to their hearts, that inspired learning or further interest, and that pained or annoyed them. This healthy look back on the day gives participants the confidence to speak their mind and to feel heard, as well as to know themselves without shame. Everyone speaks, even the instructors, and no one is judged for their answers. 13-year-old Solveig Nygaard, another participant of the backpacking trip this year said, "Feel free to be yourself. The world is moving so fast nowadays, so it's really nice to just slow down and get to know yourself. It's probably one of my favorites (camps) that I have ever done. It was a really nice environment, and I enjoyed having time to just soak it all in, because it was really beautiful up there."

The last camp for 2021 finished July 29.

According to organization founder Rob Christensen, the organization does more than help kids. It helps give the youth of today the tools to save the world, tomorrow.