Serving Connelly Creek with the Alevin and Grey Fox Kits

The Alevin Explorers arrived at Connelly Creek and quickly ran down the embankment, as they were anxious to see how the site has transformed over winter. Calling the group in the Explorers mustered their strength the carried the tools over to the site. They were excited to continue the tradition of camouflaging themselves from the next group, the Grey Fox Kits, who were soon to arrive. The mentors decided instead to use the time to work on our fire by friction and carving skills while chatting with the group about our upcoming summer backpacking trips.

Before the blog post continues, we’d like to remind everyone about the WE: Wilderness Experiences available this summer to the Alevin Explorers. Grey Fox Kits we look forward to backpacking with you in the summer of 2016. These trips are an investment in a lifetime of leadership and skills; their rewards extend far beyond the three to eight days they take place. Many of our Explorers have found them to be life changing, with benefits and tools for living that are carried and applied for many years to come. Please contact us if you have any questions, thanks!

The Grey Fox Kits arrived and the Alevin retired their skill session and both groups circled in the field. The mentors encouraged Explorers to think back to their last outing to Clayton Beach. The outing held powerful lessons about group decision-making, collaborating and compromising, and inclusion. Today would be yet another opportunity to work together while and serving the land. These boys have been working on this site for over two and a half years; they have developed skill and efficiency in their work as well as intimate knowledge of this sites needs.

Instead of painstakingly going over how to us the tools the mentors simply asked the group to be responsible with them. It is wonderful to have cultivated this level of trust within these two groups. They have continued to show their commitment and integrity with safe tools usage. Their eagerness shows they’re hungry for more responsibility, greater skills, and bigger explorations - the mentor’s bow to that.

Breaking our circle played a few rounds of Deer oh Deer Come and Run through my Forest.  This energetic tag game brought the two groups together and that same energy transferred to our work. Running over to the site the boys quickly lined up. Our project for the day was to walk down the Reed-Canary Grass, spread a giant pile of mulch over the area, and finish up with some blackberry trimming. Forming a long line we stomped down the Reed-Canary Grass. It was a fun way to warm up and release some energy. Turning our efforts to the mulch pile the boys took on one of three jobs: a mulch spreader, carrier, or filler. The group worked cohesively and as an onlooker you wouldn’t have been able to tell one group from the other. Slowly Dave started to develop a funcompetitive aspect where the mulch fillers were trying to keep the buckets filled and the carriers were trying to dump them before they could be filled. This led to an inspiration for a game. Dividing into three teams by birth month, the boys took their positions. Their goal was to fill three 32-gallon cans and move them across the service site where the rakers would make three 4 by 3 foot squares. Their teams would be judged on who could get through three cans the fastest, how they worked as a team carrying the buckets, and how neat their squares were. When the game started the boys burst into action. It was amazing, what fun!  The boys really dug deep giving it their all. In the end every team won in a different category.

Spreading the last of our mulch the Alevin Explorers said goodbye the Grey Fox Kits and broke off for a closing meeting. The Grey fox Kits worked on diligently making a big dent in the Blackberry thicket towards the back of the site. Focused and determined the boys cut, trimmed and bagged the Blackberries and hauled them across the site.  

What fine work these Explorers are doing, they should be proud of their accomplishments here at Connelly Creek. The care they show for the saplings and shrubs they planted last fall and their fellow Explorers is outstanding. In their closing circles the Explorers gave thanks for the opportunity to work with each other, for skills and games, for the ability to give back, for the sense of accomplishment and progress they feel, and for the beautiful sunshine and warmth on our spring service outing.

Parents, please take a moment to track the history of our service at this site by clicking on the “tag links” below: Connelly Creek. You’ll see how the place has changed over time due to thousands of Explorer hours poured into the Happy Valley Park. You’ll also see how your sons have changed over time too. Thank you for the opportunity to be your nature-connection mentors. We truly value these experiences and look forward to each outing with you Explorers and your families!

For more pictures from the day please visit the Alevin’s or the Grey Fox Kit'sphoto gallery. 

The Alevin & Grey Fox Kits Explore Clayton Beach

The Alevin and Grey Fox Kits met at the Clayton Beach parking lot for their second exploration of the season. Little did they know the mentors were planning on joining forces for the outing! After safely crossing the road the boys searched for a place to have an opening meeting. Finding a clearing under a Cedar tree, we circled up and there was clearly a divide between the two groups. The mentors explained that by chance the two groups had been scheduled for Clayton Beach on the same day and that the opportunity presented to the groups could be used for skill sharing, a large game of some kind, or wherever their inspiration led them.  

The boys handed out jobs amongst their own groups and the mentors handed the circle over to the Tribal Elders for the day, letting them know that this decision could be made in five minutes if they focused. The Tribal Elders were quick to come to the decision that the group needed to take a vote in order to come to a collaborative decision. The mentors stressed to the Tribal Elders that it was important for the group to brainstorm ideas on how we could best use our time before the group voted. Going around the circle the Tribal Elders collected suggestions, but soon the circle turned to chaos. Some boys tried to take over by talking over the Tribal Elders, other boys were anxious to get to the beach and unable to hold their focus wandered off, while others argued amongst themselves over what would be the best use of time.

After about ten minutes the mentors called the group back together. By then many of the Explorers were frustrated and decided it would be best to split the two groups and explore on their own. Once Tim had everyone seated and focused he explained that we honor and respect each other in our circles by bringing our focus and commitment towards the decision at hand, and that we are part of a community and this means we must collaborate and compromise. After 30 minutes of group process the boys came to the decision that they would stick together, go to the beach, and then at 2:45pm head back to the woods to play a round of Spider’s Web.

Although the process can seem arduous and daunting these Explorers are learning the interpersonal skills it takes to be part of a community and the mentors were quite proud of their decision and commitment to remain a community.

Sensing that they had lost some time the group quickly headed down the trail to Clayton and spread out over the beach. It was powerful having four mentors on this outing. The dynamic afforded the boys the opportunity to follow their own inspirations on the beach. Setting up a home base some of the Grey Fox Kits pulled out their knives and began to carve as they watched a group of Surf Scoters fishing for invertebrates in the Eelgrass Beds. Other Explorers ran over to the sandstone cliffs and climbed to their hearts content as Peter spotted them. When given the space and time these boys are so creative and inquisitive. The boys spread into every nook and cranny of the beach, finding quiet spots on the bluff to get lost in thought, searching the intertidal zones for Anemones and Hermit Crabs, and even finding a driftwood teeter-totter to play on.  

Shadowing a group of boys one mentor witnessed a very powerful moment. A few Explorers found a quiet place where a Willow tree hung over a small creek that fed into the sound. As they sat they commented to one another that this place was the most beautiful they had ever seen and encouraged each other to get quiet and listen to the creek as it ran into the sea. After about ten minutes of silence the mentor approached the boys and said, “pretty nice spot huh”? The Explorers commented that this place wasn’t just nice, but special. They said they felt like people had been coming to this place for many generations and that it was special because people would continue to experience its solitude for many more generations.

As mentors we rarely directly experience the fruit of our labors, but in times like these it is clear that our core routine of sit spots and immersion into the landscape are shaping and changing the Explorers relationship the natural environment. This connection is nurturing inside them the ability to slow down, deeply reflect, and be appreciative for all we have. 

Circling up a little after 2:45pm the boys had another group decision to make.  Almost unanimously the boys decided to skip heading back into the woods for a game and instead stay on the beach and continue exploring. It was powerful for the boys to make such a quick decision and realize that they had to ability to be collaborative leaders. Before breaking our circle for one last exploration the group shared a circle of thanks. The boys gave thanks for the amazing sunny weather, for the ability to explore their interests, for food and water, for special spots and abundant wildlife, and for the opportunity to explore with each other.

The Mentors would like to thank these Explorers for putting in the work and answering the challenges that being part of a circular community brings. The Grey Fox Kits and the Alevin will be working together next outing at our Boys EC Service Site. The mentors look forward to another day together full ofcollaboration and compromise!

For more pictures from the day please visit either the Grey Fox Kit’s or theAlevin’s photo gallery. 

Alevin Serving Connelly Creek with the Grey Fox Kits

With the warmth of spring in the air, Matt and Greg eagerly awaited the arrival of the boys.  The lure of the creek entertained the explorers who climbed and leapt across its banks waiting for the remainder of their group.  Once all the Alevin had arrived it was time to have brief opening meeting to discuss the important tasks of the day.  The largest order of the day was that the Alevin would be stepping into a mentoring role for the first time.  They would be leading the service day by example.  For some explorers it was their third time working at this service site, so they would be able to draw upon their experience of doing service in thier new leadership role.  The Alevin have also been through the Art of Carving training and the Gray Fox Kits have not, so the Alevin would be able to model the way to use the tools respectfully and carefully for the job at hand.  The second important topic was to prepare a camouflage gauntlet for the younger boys, but instead of hiding pipe cleaners in the land the Alevin would hide themselves!

Matt and Greg walked the boys along the trail taking the opportunity to go deeper into the Art of Camouflage.  We looked at how the trails and tracks left in the grass would give away our hiding spots to the careful observer.  We looked at dark places and light places and tried to learn how to obscure our outlines.  After a brief tour of the zone where we would hide, the Alevin and their mentors disappeared into the shrubs and grass and waited silently.  They waited and soon the arriving Grey Fox Kits could be heard playing in the creek and eventually gathering for their own opening meeting.  Eventually our waiting was over and the slow crunching of feet on gravel could be heard, sometimes only inches away!  The sound of the crow call signaled the end and explorers and mentors alike were comparing notes about who hid where and if they were seen.  The Alevin all added a little more experiance to their deepening knowledge of the Art of Camouflage.

The Alevin and Grey Fox Kits gathered in a huge circle and it was finally time to begin our service.  The boys ate their lunches and listened as Steve and Drew gave a brief introduction to the service tools and their usage.  Our tools are borrowed from the City of Bellingham as well as the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association, so it was very important that we treat these tools with care, so that we can keep using them to restore this patch of Connelly Creek. 

The momentum to get to work was huge and the list of tasks for the day included: mulching down the reed canary grass, digging Himalayan Blackberry roots, cutting back blackberry canes and hauling them out to the trail, and cutting back the persistent Reed Canary grass.  With the perspective time the Alevin could clearly see how three seasons of work has begun to transform a small and forsaken corner of the park into a willow and alder thicket.  Our hope is that over the years explorers club will eventually come back to this spot and say, “Look at this land.  Once it was covered in trash and blackberries, and filled with shrubs and small trees!”

The comfortable rhythm of working outside and among friends quickly passed the time and it was time to hold our closing meeting.  Thanks were given for the Land, for service, for hiding and for Explorers Club.  With muddy shoes and boots we returned to the eagerly awaiting parents and siblings to share the stories of our day.

Thank you parents and family for your support.  We couldn’t do this important work without you!  Explorers thank you for stepping into a leadership role and stretching a new edge!  Check out the photo gallery here. 

We’ll see you for our grand finale outing on June 8^th for a fantastic hike up to Pine and Cedar Lakes.  This will be our strong finish to a great season!