Our Blog
Courier Post | June 3, 2012
By: Joe Cooney
PENNSAUKEN — Kids, kayaks, canoes and the Cooper River could be construed as a risky combination.Asked how hard it is to balance himself in the kayak, Johnson said he practices a lot. “I practice balancing myself on the curb when I’m walking home,” said the student, who is in the advanced BoatWorksclass.
“I’m really looking forward to this trip.”
Somewhat hesitant was Faith Kroma, 15. She said she couldn’t swim.
“But I have a life jacket,” she smiled. “And I know how to yell ‘Help.’ This is going to be real fun, but I’m a little nervous.”
Noah Washington climbed into the front of an aluminum canoe that was captained by UrbanPromise volunteer Tom Culp of Moorestown.
“This has been real fun,” Culp said. “The kids are great and this is good for them. And they get really excited when they finally get the boats into the water after all the tedious sanding.”
Kroma, paddling a canoe from the bow seat, was smiling and laughing even after someone asked her if she had seen the movie “Titanic.”
“Hey,” yelled the bubbly teenager. “Stop playing. I’m really nervous.” But she was still grinning.
At about 12:45, the flotilla of 17 kayaks and 11 canoes, manned by the students, volunteers and members of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, made their way west. Destination Pyne Poynt Marina at the Delaware River under the shadow of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.
“Where the Cooper meets the Delaware is absolutely gorgeous,” Cummings said. “You have the Philly skyline and some great wildlife there. This is an incredible gem we have here right in our community.”
But all went well Saturday morning as more than a dozen youngsters from Camden’s UrbanPromise BoatWorks launched the crafts they had been building for the last eight months.
After hundreds of hours of measuring, sawing, sanding, epoxying and applying coats of varnish, the students said they were thrilled to launch their creations near the Camden County Boathouse.
“I never built a boat before,” said Noah Washington, a 12-year-old from Willingboro. “It was actually very cool.”
Jim Cummings, the director of experiential learning at UrbanPromise, said the middle and highschool students started working on their wooden watercrafts at the beginning of the school year.
About 50 kids participate in the BoatWorks program, Cummings said, and are divided into groups of six or seven students. Each group would work on the boats one day a week. Six canoes and two kayaks were built in the basement of the Camden Shipyard and Maritime Museum in the Waterfront South section of the city.
“We got finished (Friday) night,” Cummings said with a big smile. “And some will have to go back to the shop on Monday. They’re all floating, but some still need some sanding and another coat of finish.”
Cummings said the students have also been learning about the local ecology and urban waterways. Some were skeptical about heading out onto the Cooper River.
“They said, ‘Mr. C., it’s polluted. There are bodies in there,’ ” Cummings said. “The urban community is so disconnected from the water. But there’s so much water all around us. And this has been a very cool introduction for them.”
The boats were officially launched and blessed about 8:30 Saturday morning. After some additional water safety instructions and a pizza lunch, the students boarded their creations to get ready for a two-hour adventure along the Tidal Cooper River.
I couldn’t help but think of the inspirational and whimsical Dr. Seuss book “Oh, the Places you’ll Go” when Terron came by my office the other day. Home from college for Spring Break he stopped in to make sure I had his upcoming graduation from Eastern University on my calendar. I wouldn’t miss it for anything; Terron was one of my first students when I began UrbanTrekkers eight years ago.
It seemed like he wanted to talk but at first said little…soon we began to reminisce about the places we had traveled during his years at our small high school, the UrbanPromise Academy. We shared about the first ever UrbanTrekkers spring break trip to Mt. Washington, New Hampshire; some challenging hikes, the Moose we saw and some amazing vistas. There was our trip to Vancouver, BC (his first time on a plane) and the Olympic Peninsula when we came so close to hitting a deer with the van; the Everglades and the alligators or the annual end of summer trips to Maine with kayaking off of Port Clyde, those annual 50 mile bike rides…and that final trip the week before his high school graduation, the Senior Rite of Passage in upstate New York. 
The conversation had us both filled with the fondness of our memories when I asked, “What did those experiences do for you?” I’m often asked by friends and supporters what impact UrbanTrekkers has on the students I work with. City kids, who likely would never experience the travel and adventures that, have become part of their school. What are my outcomes, a fair question, yet not always easily quantified.
Terron reflects for a moment, I can tell he’s giving this serious thought. After a brief moment he says, “Mr. C when I was getting ready to begin my studies at Eastern University what I feared the most, was not if I could succeed academically, the scary part for me was would I feel like I belonged”. Eastern University is a Main Line Philadelphia private Christian college and a world away from Camden, New Jersey. For Terron it was terrifying trying to imagine how he could ever fit in with this group and culture so removed from everything he knew.
Terron went on to say, “Everyone knows your story when you say you’re from Camden”…a story of drugs, violence, and poverty “you are the 5 o’clock news!” he shouted …”but I had another story, UrbanTrekkers gave me my stories”. He went on, “when I had papers to write or just chillin in the dorm, I had my own stories”.
Our conversation came back to his Senior Rite of Passage trip to the Adirondack Mountains and Saranac Lake. There was a severe storm the night he and his classmates were out on their 24 hour solos, it was a major weather event with torrential rain and gale force winds taking down trees and creating ocean sized white caps on the lake. Earlier that afternoon my friend Bob Harris and I had left each student on a small island by themselves with just the bare essentials but by now Bob and I had plenty of anxiety as we realized the severity of the storm from our camp’s distant shore.
Fortunately the storm passed quickly and the rain began to fall with less intensity, we were now able to get on the lake in a small bass boat to check on Terron and his fellow classmates. Terron‘s tent had lost the fly (rain cover) and now had 2’ of water sitting in the bottom. We helped him resituate the tent, find the fly and told him we would see him in the morning. I’ll never forget the surprise that he showed when he realized we had not come to take him off the island that night…but more importantly what he said when he told me not to worry about him, “I know how to take care of myself…I’ve done it all my life”.
Whether it is a grueling 12 mile hike, riding fifty miles in the Pedal for Promise or the night of the storm on his Island they are experiences Terron will never forget…and it’s where I have discovered the most amazing young people I’ve ever met…and they give me my stories to tell. Thank you for your support and continual encouragement.
God Bless & Keep on Trekking, Jim
Since July 1st UrbanTrekkers and Urban BoatWorks have had an amazing first half to our FYE 12 calendar. Over 100 students from UrbanPromise Ministries, Sacred Heart School and the Camden Academy Charter High School are participating in the experiential learning programs created by UrbanTrekkers and Urban BoatWorks. We continue to see the integration of academic and extra-curricular programming as complementing and enhancing the learning experiences of our urban youth.
“For years, copying other people, I tried to know myself. From within, I couldn’t decide what to do. Unable to see, I heard my name being called. Then I walked outside” Rumi
We were near the end of our two day hike on the Appalachian Trail (AT) following a ridge line on the Kittatinny Mountains in the Delaware Water Gap. It was our Fall Outdoor Leadership Training (OLT) for our UP Academy seniors – the early fall weather had been exceptional with just a tad of crispness in the autumn mountain air. The hiking had been extremely challenging; the unusually heavy summer rains had eroded a significant amount of trail surface leaving exposed and loose rock. Turned ankles and twisted knees were unavoidable and all of us had experienced a fall or two. At this time in the day the stress and tensions from the trekking were as exposed as the rocks.
One of the students was really struggling, more than the rest. The weight of her pack seemed to take on more pounds with each passing step. She needed to rest; her ankles were sore and hurting from multiple twists. Unfortunately some of her classmates who were also tired and hurting did not want to stop, they wanted to go faster and get to the end of the trail; they were ready to be done. I reacted with a quick rebuke for the students who showed an indifference to their classmate’s struggle. The correction was not well received and a student snapped back at me saying, “I didn’t ask to come on this trip, I’m not an outdoor person, this is your thing, not mine.” The moment passed…but the tension was not far from the surface.
In camp later that evening, after a beef stew dinner with the warmth of a crackling fire beside us, it was now time to unpack what had happened during the day. “You don’t get it,” I started. “This is not about the outdoors, it’s about character”. Whether on a four day portage and paddle trip across the Saranac’s, white water rafting on the Nolichucky, or on a grueling ten mile hike on the AT , it is all about finding our true selves…because I know in these moments of our greatest stress we reveal our true selves - for good, for bad. They listened silently; the tension dissipated; the student who snapped earlier during the day now offered an apology. And, I admitted that if they enjoyed the outdoors (or better yet became an outdoor naturalist or a park ranger), I would be overjoyed.
We drove back to Camden Sunday morning leaving the Kittatinny Mountains and the Appalachian Trail behind us; back to the city… and maybe, just maybe, we know ourselves a little bit better. As we rounded the corner to the UrbanPromise Campus, we saw the blazing orange foliage on a Maple tree in front of the elementary school. One of the students exclaimed, “Wow, look at that tree, I’ve become more aware of nature after being in it.”
Keep on Trekking… even when the trail gets tough.
Jim
Pages
