As I traveled to our meeting spot at the Outdoor Adventure Center on Wednesday at 8 a.m., the weather appeared less than promising for our planned retreat to Alum Creek State Park. Everyone was scrambling into the building from their cars in hopes of spending the least amount of time in the downpour that threatened to leave you feeling like you just went for a swim. Granted I had just come from swim practice with my teammate Katy Luchansky, who is a trademarking and licensing intern, but we still avoided the rain at all costs! When we entered the building, everyone was sitting in the lobby of the OAC dressed in t-shirts, shorts and tennis shoes looking ready for a fun day full of activities. Tyler Young, the Outdoor Leadership program coordinator, notified us our adventure would remain inside for the day unless any of us wanted to volunteer ourselves as lightning rods. Luckily, there were no takers, so we began the day by splitting up into two groups: scarlet and gray.
I found myself in the scarlet group, which consisted of 13 of the interns and we ventured through the OAC to a soccer field located in the back while the gray team remained in the front of the building. The building was quite loud that morning since more than 100 kids filled the adjacent fields for a camp, but it did not disrupt our activities at all. The first team building activity my group undertook was called pipeline. The goal was to transfer balls of all shapes and sizes from one bucket to another about 20 feet away as fast as possible in five minutes only using one piece of pipe per person. On my groups first time around, we managed to get 13 balls into the ending bucket by passing the ball from one person’s pipe to another’s and rotating to the end of the line once it passed through yours. We felt as if we could land a higher number of balls in the bucket so after developing a new strategy, my group eagerly began the task again by deciding to divide and conquer. We split ourselves into small groups and worked or way to the bucket with multiple balls at a time. This method allowed us to get 20 balls this time and all of us were very pleased with this feat. At the end of the day, we came to find out the gray team had managed to get 47 balls by using a different strategy!
Our next activity remained on the same field, but at the opposite end where there was a large metal frame set up with yarn tied in different ways to create various sizes and shapes of openings. The instructors told us we must pass our whole team through one hole to the other side only using one opening per person and two people must be blindfolded. With the rules in mind, my team began collaborating on what strategy to use. We decided to have one of the guys go through first so he could catch the girls who would be sent through the openings at the top. I went through one of the top holes blindfolded, using my swimming experience to form a tight streamline as they squeezed me through to the other side. Eventually, my whole group accomplished our task of everyone reaching the other side and we discussed how communication and teamwork allowed us to efficiently conquer the endeavor.
After these two activities, we rotated locations with the gray team and started our third activity of the day by gathering around a line that was fixed to the ground at the two ends and the middle with bright green tape. Our instructor informed us the one end meant strongly agree and the other end indicated strongly disagree while the middle was neutral. Then, he read us a series of statements ranging from I believe that I am a leader on my sports team to people will consider me a leader in the workplace. These statements were designed to incorporate our sports history with our new experience in Bucks Go Pro and get us thinking about leadership in relation to both of these aspects of our lives. After each statement was read, one or two people elaborated on why they agreed or disagreed to a certain extent, which let us get to know one another better.
Next, it was time for another challenging activity and our instructor laid out an interesting contraption constructed of a wooden center with pieces of ropes extending out to form what resembled a spider. He directed each person to grab a piece of rope with one hand and practice moving the contraption together with a cup of water balancing in the middle. The goal was to transport the contraption from the beginning to a green ‘X’ located across the room. Obstacles littered our way, but my group successfully completed the challenge without spilling a drop of water. However, the instructor increased the difficulty by hiding the green ‘X’ in a new location while half of our team put on blindfolds. Once again, I found myself blind as we attempted to conquer yet another activity, but I had Craig Dalrymple, the facilities intern, to guide me along and keep me from running into any obstacles or dropping the rope. Each blindfolded person was helped along by a fellow intern so we could efficiently complete our mission. After what seemed like a long time in the dark, I was finally able to remove my blindfold because my group had reached the ‘X’ without spilling the water. We discussed how this was due to our great teamwork abilities and trust in one another.
Following this, we were led into a room where an array of bandanas sat in front of us and I knew I was going to find myself blind once more. As we tied our blindfolds around our eyes, Tyler told us we would be led into a maze and we must find our way out. If we had any questions, he told us we must raise our hands and someone would place their hand on our shoulder, but only two questions would receive answers. With his short debriefing in mind, they led us out of the room with one hand on the shoulder of the person in front of us and worry clouding our heads. The walls of the maze were constructed with rope and after multiple laps around, I discovered it was a circle. However, I could not bring myself to think of the right questions to ask: Where is the exit? Do we just climb under the rope?. Then, multiple people began to escape the maze and I finally thought to ask for help. A hand guided me out of the maze and after everyone had finished, Tyler explained the lesson of the activity was that we should always ask for help when we need it.
The day was coming to an end, but we still had two more activities to complete. Once again, we switched places with the gray team, silently praying for them as they made their way towards the frustrating maze. However, our activity turned out to be equally exasperating since we had to move a large, wooden A-frame from one end of the field to the other using only four pieces of rope while a person stood in the frame. Also, the frame always had to touch the ground in at least one spot and could not drag across the grass. With those rules in mind, my team decided to stand the A-frame upright and attach two ropes to the top and two ropes at the leg while the smallest member of our group, Nicole Miyashiro, the human resources intern, stood inside the frame. This method ended up only getting us half way, but proved extremely risky as the frame nearly squished Nicole a handful of times. So, we ended up tying three ropes to the top and one at the base of the frame while Craig walked the base from leg to leg to the finish line. This activity definitely took the most collaboration and teamwork since it was the most difficult and tricky, but my group worked together effectively and found success.
As our fun day came to a close, the scarlet and gray groups gathered together to start one last activity where there was a large circle filled with balls and stuffed animals of random shapes, colors and sizes. Tyler instructed us to find a partner and that one person would be the ‘tank’ and the other would be the ‘commander.’ The tank was required to be on all fours and blindfolded while the commander shouted out directions to the tank on where to find ‘artillery’ and to aim to hit another tank and get them out after three hits. In the next round, the goal was to get as much artillery as you could in any way possible, so many people wrestled over balls and animals. One poor stuffed giraffe suffered the wrath of Yianni Sarris and Kevin Duffy as they tore it in half on accident!
Overall, the rain did not put a damper on our day since we made the most of our indoor adventure from start to finish. Everyone learned so much more about one another and started new friendships that will last long after Bucks Go Pro ends. Needless to say, the retreat was a resounding success and all the interns are excited about our next six weeks together.