Spring is Coming! - Canoecopia

Big City Mountaineers
JEFF WEIDMAN
The exit interview was the end of a long satisfying
relationship with JanSport in Appleton, Wisconsin. I
had been a wholesale rep for them, enjoyed a nice run
and was hanging up my sales hat for good. I had a new gig
lined up at Rutabaga and was looking forward to the change
(and getting off the road).
The sales manager looked at me and noted I had been taking
good care of my bank account. “You’re right,” I said. “Sales has
been good to me.” He wondered if I had been taking similar care
of my karma account. Huh? He said that maybe it was the time of
life to give something back
and slid a business card
across the table.
Big City Mountaineers?
What do they do? The
interviewer didn’t miss a
beat. “They change kids
lives one at a time by
giving them an entirely
new perspective for eight
days.” Good news is
they have a paddle-based
program in the BWCA
that could use some help.
That was six years ago.
Today BCM runs 12 trips
to BWCA each summer,
owns all their own boats and gear (donated by Rutabaga and
various paddlesports manufacturers) and draws teen boys and
girls from Chicago and Minneapolis. I am on the executive
committee of the board of directors. We ran over 75 trips
nationwide this last summer, opened up a new hub in Portland,
and are poised for major growth.
A typical trip is 5 adults and 5 “at risk” teens. The teens are
selected by the youth association with which they are affiliated and
is based on need. Most have never been away from home. Of the
adults, one is the trip leader, another is a youth councilor that has
been working with the teens and the other three are volunteers.
This year’s trip was being lead by Keith Dumbleton, a
Chicago high school teacher who had guided with me years
ago on another BCM trip. Nathan Pugh was the youth leader,
bringing kids up from a Chicago YMCA. Skip Yowell from
JanSport and I rounded out the adult team. The range of
outdoor and paddling experience in the adults was wide.
Remember that these boys had never been away from home
for more than a day, and certainly had never been to anything
resembling a wilderness, but the boys climbed in a van and left
Chicago with Nate and Keith and drove the 12 hours to Ely.
There they met Skip and I at Wilderness Wind, our partner for
lodging and equipment storage outside of town. Over the next
day, we practiced paddling, and camped in wall tents.
The boys were nervous at the put in, and their lack of
experience in the outdoors showed in their questions: “How
deep is it?” “Are there animals that can hurt us?” “What if it
rains?” My favorite: “Are there sharks?” I guess it was Shark
Week on the Discovery Channel.
As we pushed off to paddle to our first portage, you could
tell they had reservations.
They had never been in a
wilderness setting before,
much less with everything
they needed to live for a
week in a loaded canoe.
They couldn’t believe we
had to haul everything
over the portages. The
first portage went a
little rough—not much
teamwork and a lot of
complaining. Once on the
other side of the portage,
we loaded up and started
paddling again. It wasn’t
until now they understood
how we would be traveling. This was a sobering moment.
But the first campsite was a real winner. We helped them
unpack and put up their tents the first time, but the rest of the
trip would be on their own. Cooks and cleanups were assigned
and it was time to swim and fish. They were in heaven.
During the next five days, it was rewarding to see how they
gained confidence. By the last night, they didn’t really need
us anymore. Navigating, unpacking, pitching tents, cooking,
hauling food at night, and packing up the next morning. They
had become a cohesive team and were working well together.
This is what makes BCM work. We provide an environment
where growth is not accidental. Their youth leader Nathan Pugh
commented: “I saw more change in six days than I have in the
last six months.” That is an amazing amount of growth, thanks
to time in the wilderness.
BCM is proud and thankful to call Rutabaga a partner.
Look for the BCM teen representatives in the JanSport booth
at Canoecopia. Please consider volunteering on one of our
trips. You too will see how wilderness canoe tripping can
dramatically change the lives of these kids, one at a time.
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Canoecopia 2010 www.rutabaga.com