RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The idea for an outdoor teen education challenge hit like a bolt of lightning. This one hit less than 50 feet from six high school girls on their way up Mount Rogers, the highest peak in Virginia.
The group hiked the mountain as part of Blue Sky Fund’s 2013 Outdoor Leadership Institute, which encourages teens of diverse economic and ethnic backgrounds to learn leadership skills through outdoor activities and service projects.
The experience prompted the girls, from schools ranging from Henrico High to boarding school Oak Hill Academy, to organize their own outdoor challenge, which was to be held Saturday at Joseph Bryan Park.
Team activities will include timed tent setup and backpack-stuffing competitions, an obstacle course and a blindfold hike. Each station will introduce the participating teens to the works of an area nonprofit.
The six-member team won a Community Foundation Youth Philanthropy Project grant last spring to help fund the event in partnership with Blue Sky Fund. The event is free and open to teens ages 13 to 18.
When the girls recount the hiking story that birthed the idea, the more frightening aspects have melted into nostalgia.
“Our first day,” Henrico High junior Lindsey Shavers starts, producing laughter in the group. “There was a big storm about a mile in.”
Each girl, along with their Blue Sky Fund guides, carried a 40-pound backpack with food and supplies. The storm popped up in the first hours of their five-day trip on Mount Rogers in Southwest Virginia. As the storm worsened, the Blue Sky Fund staff instructed them to spread out and assume “lightning position,” a squat with their heads tucked by their knees.
Protocol from their earlier two-week training was for them to keep that position until 30 minutes after the last roll of thunder, Shavers said. Two minutes before the required time expired, Shavers said, she saw the lightning bolt strike the ground in a burst of colors and a loud boom about 50 feet away from the group.
As the gravity of what had happened settled in, the guides told the group to leave their backpacks and quickly make their way down the mountain. They then had three choices: Head back to Richmond, stay in a hotel overnight and start fresh in the morning, or continue on to the overnight camping grounds.
“We were even more determined” to continue as planned, Collegiate School sophomore Matty Pahren said.
She recalled how during the discussion of the options, the guides reminded them another storm could hit, but “I felt confident with this group of people,” Pahren said.
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Information from: Richmond Times-Dispatch, https://www.timesdispatch.com
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