[Philmont]: Eliminating disharmony

As some of you may know, I walked into a crew thirty days after the adult
leader had "backed out." He was arrested for sexually assault on minors and
by the time the crew arrived at Philmont, the word was out he had been
assaulting boys for 30 years.

I drove into Philmont and was waiting trying to figure out how I was going
deal. They were coming from Ohio, I drove down from Denver. Thank heavens
they were boys, who had grown up in the same home town area I had. I had a
basic understanding.

Day 1 the first kid wanted to drop. I asked for help in working with the
kid. I picked up his pack and carried it to the top of the mountain, walked
back down and picked up my pack and said all you have to do is walk up the
mountain. It's down hill from there. (OK I did stretch the truth then.)
Until day three he wanted to go home. After that he fit in. No one dropped
out for more than an hour and we waited during that hour. We lightened his
load until he felt better. We encouraged and shoved and pushed and pointed
out vistas. He has gone back to Philmont at least 4 times since that first
trek with council contingents.

I never told anyone how to do anything. I asked for a lot of help. I made
suggestions. I never did anything without checking with the crew leader and
then he followed through, not because I told him, but because I worked hard
to get him to understand the reasoning behind my thoughts. Pretty soon he
did not need me, he understood. Great youth.

Day 6-7 the crew leaders pack frame broke. We sat down and out of everyone's
pack, without asking came repair stuff to help. A few minutes later we were
on our way, 11 people worried about one pack and the guy carrying it not
worried at all, he had the rest of us.

I was carrying an eighty pound pack. I had over packed since I had not done
a shake down with the crew and did not know what I was getting into. I
loaned stuff out, showed them new ideas and had them teach me. I carried a
10 pound first aid kit. At a camp we ran into a mess of blisters from some
other crews. I pulled out the first aid kit, looked around and smiled. We
all walked down to the camp and started repairing blisters and knees. After
that my first aid kit would disappear on its own and come back a little
lighter. End of the trek the first aid kit weighed less than 2 pounds.

When we got to the mountain with the airplane on top (can't remember the
name now) we carried our packs up and over. We picked up trash the entire
way. Dropping into a camp there were new sumps laying up near the road. We
saw a worker carrying one down the trail. 12 foot long 6" diameter PVC with
an elbow on the end. The crew leader looked at me and I said sure. Packs
and sumps were carried into the camp about a mile away. Strung us out a
little but we looked good.

We had a couple of sprained ankles and knees. I dropped my pack and opened
it up and asked the injured person what they wanted me to carry. I explained
they would not heal until they lightened their load. Ten other packs also
opened up and we took everything except the frame.

My number one goal was to have fun. We hiked into base camp singing songs I
had taught them during the trek. The final son was "Region 4." From the
days of 12 regions, region 4 had a song, a great kid hiking song. Hearing
12 people belt it out marching into base camp was a riot.

Every time we saw a sister crew we picked up rocks. We stuck rocks into
their packs. When our ranger left (he stuck around an extra day because we
were having some problems with the one kid) he carried a five pound rock
back to base camp. Needless to say he was waiting for us when we got back
to camp with a grin. By the second time we met one sister crews, they were
lined up watching us walk in all holding rocks and grins.

I lead by example. The example was set by the rest of the crew.

I showed them I new a lot, but not everything.

I showed them I was willing to work to help them.

I showed them I needed their help.

I showed them that together we were going to have fun. I worked hard at
having fun.

I told them more than anything how great the were and how great a job they
were doing. I tried to compliment every person a couple times a day on
something. One young scout was having a hard time and I told him his hair
looked good. The whole crew fell over laughing with the kid.

I just worked hard at having fun with youth. I think the success of the
crew was having fun. Fun carrying an extra load. Fun picking up trash. Fun
helping others. We the crew leader picked up the "We al made it award." I
thought the crew would yell and cheer like everyone else, but we were pretty
quite. They new about making it.

Jim

James H. Moss, JD, Editor
Outdoor Recreation & Fitness Law Review:
The Outdoor Recreation & Fitness Law Reviews are publications for members of
the Outdoor Recreation, Adventure Travel, Hospitality and Fitness Industry.
http://www.snewsnet.com/cgi-bin/snews/law_review/index.html
lawreview@snewsnet.com

Adjunct Professor: The Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism,
University of Utah
Outdoor Recreation Risk Management, Insurance and Law
http://www.health.Utah.edu/prt/

Instructor: Ski Area Operations, Risk Management Course Colorado Mountain
College
Email: jmoss@coloradomtn.edu
http://www.coloradomtn.edu/programs/sao/home.html

PO Box 16743
Golden, CO 80402
303-807-2275
jhmoss@gmail.com

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Received on Mon Mar 27 00:45:51 2006