Whew! 2017 was a whirlwind of crazy goodness! I started at Youth Odyssey in March and so much as happened since then! Thanks to the Charity League, we put in a new building at our ropes course, we ran two new summer camps that were a complete success and we blew our fundraising goal for Coastal Bend Day of Giving out of the water! Not to mention all the stand out moments I've shared with our youth. Getting to see first hand the impact you're making is truly rewarding. It's what keeps us going. With so much great stuff happening, it's hard to pick out and focus on one memory, so I'll hit all the high points!
The Biggest Stand Out Moment
This year we hosted our first ever Girl's Empowerment Camp. It was filled with laughter, tears and new friendships! The best part about that week was all the silliness that went on in between the serious moments. I think my favorite night that week was when we had an empowerment movie night! We popped popcorn for all the girls and watched Mulan cause she's all about that girl power. The girls had no idea what we were doing that night inside the classroom at the delta property and it was so much fun to surprise them and see their reactions!
Other Really Great Moments...
On the last day of Backpacking Camp, the kids chose to swim all day at the lake. They all had sore muscles from backpacking for three days and had earned a day to cool off and relax. It was so much fun kicking back under the sun and enjoying the cool lake. We swam out to the floating dock and jumped off into the water about a million times! Everyone had a fantastic day recovering and resting at the lake.
At Canoe Camp this past summer, we completed a 13 mile long canoe trail! It was tough at times but we had fun along the way. We stopped at a rope swing and took turns swinging out into the river. We played canoe tag and raced each other down the river (we got really tired after that). Along the way we saw lots of great wildlife and native plants. Once we finished that trail, the sense of accomplishment we felt was amazing! We were beat and our arms felt like they were about to fall off but, we were all smiles.
Last May, We partnered up with Grow Local South Texas to help facilitate a new Farm to Fork program. Every Tuesday the kids would meet at the Learning Garden and get their hands dirty while learning about pollinators, 3 sisters farming and local fruits and veggies. For graduation, we all meet in the rec. center kitchen and prepared a meal (pizza and salad) for the kid's families, made entirely from local ingredients! The kids had a blast applying their new knowledge about local food and being creative with their pizza toppings. And I had a blast eating some super fresh pizza. This pilot program was such a success, we are bringing it back this year... twice!
Everyone here in the office, our board members and our loyal supporters all worked extra hard this year to make sure we met our match again during the Coastal Bend Day of Giving. All of our hard work paid off and we blew our goal out of the water! We raised approximately $42,000 to go towards our programs! It was a very rewarding and exciting day! How's that for a success story?
And finally the most recent great 2017 moment was our Thanksgiving Trip with the Youth Leaders! It was so great to go out to Palo Duro Canyon and hike the Lighthouse Trail, see Cadillac Ranch, the mid-point of Route 66 and my old alma-mater West Texas A&M. It was very cold but we saw and did so many great things, we barely noticed. This was also a significant trip because our Program Director, Brian, announced to the Youth Leaders that he'd be leaving at the end of the year. Everyone was sad to hear the news but wished him well on his next adventure.
2018 Here We Come!
All in all, we had an abundance of success in 2017. We had several new experiences with new staff and a couple of teary goodbyes as well. With all this great momentum from 2017, we are expecting 2018 to be even bigger and better! Stay tuned friends!
