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- Project Adventure
Monday, August 5, 2013
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Connecticut Children's Burn Camp
“… I wanted to give you a shout out
after camp. We had a fantastic week, servicing 84 campers from all over the
world. It was an incredible experience and I feel blessed that we (the ropes
staff) can touch young burn survivors’ lives thru the ropes course experience.
… Your refresher was a great boost
for us all and gave the staff confidence to handle such a large number of
participants…”
Thursday, June 28, 2012
New Massachusetts Accident Reporting Procedure
Recently the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Public Safety released a new procedure for accident reporting. If you are currently operating a Challenge Course in the state of Massachusetts we highly recommend that you view this update from the MA DOPS. Click here for more information
Monday, June 11, 2012
Project Adventure Video Contest!
We are excited to announce our first video contest! This contest is a chance for everyone to share how you incorporate adventure education in your life! Winner receives a FREE workshop!
This opportunity is open to organizations, schools or individuals who are actively involved in some form of Adventure Education. Video themes must incorporate some aspect of Adventure Education for qualification. Examples of adventure education are:
This opportunity is open to organizations, schools or individuals who are actively involved in some form of Adventure Education. Video themes must incorporate some aspect of Adventure Education for qualification. Examples of adventure education are:
- Adventure curriculum in the classroom
- Challenge Course experiences
- Adventure games and initiatives
- Adventure Education impact
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Disease, Community & Adventure
by Jean Walsh
If there are two things I know well they are adventure and
Friedreich’s ataxia (FA). I worked for Project Adventure for about 15 years and
I have FA. I was diagnosed with FA about 30 years ago. Do I know all there is
to know about either? Not by a long shot, but I am a veteran of both. On a
sunny, but cool, day in April a group of 25 of us, some with FA and some of our
able-bodied loved ones, had an adventure experience at Moraine Farm. I knew it
would be good – that is why I organized it. I didn’t know it would be great.
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| photo credit: Woody Barr |
Before I tell you how it was great, let me tell you a little
about FA. FA is a genetic disorder that impairs multiple systems. Its typical
onset is in early adolescence. It is first noticed as poor balance and
coordination. I used to ride horses. I began at age six. So how could it be
that at sixteen, keeping my head up and shoulders back, something so innate,
began to be something I had to really concentrate on to make happen? That is
just the beginning. FA is degenerative. It gets worse and worse. If you’re
lucky, it gets worse slowly. This is true for me. I am not lucky to have FA,
obviously. I am lucky that the progression is slow and I am not experiencing some
of the symptoms my younger friends with FA are. If you know me, you know that I
used to walk and now I use a manual wheelchair. I have had more people ask me
if I am drunk as I slur my speech more than I choose to remember, but I can
still be understood. I could chronicle a lot more, but I am sure you get it.
What people who know me may not know is that FA is far more than a problem with
balance, coordination and speech. It causes: diabetes; deafness; blindness and scoliosis
so that severe steel rods need to be surgically implanted to prevent the
impairment of vital organs. Finally, people with FA often die of heart disease.
There is no treatment. There is no cure.
I am a late comer to what people with FA and their loved
ones call FAmily. Once I did become active in the FAmily, I was welcome with
open arms and felt immediately at home. But I have to admit that the little
cynical voice in my head whispered: “FAmily, really?” I think that cynical little voice has not been in my way as I’ve met
my new friends. I know that cynical
voice didn’t grow out of anything my new friends did. It was there. I am
working on losing it. After our adventure experience I say: “ FAmily, true
that!”
Our experience was masterfully led (as I expected) by Bill
Cuff, Tim Churchard, Nate Folan and my brother-in-law Yew Cheong Tham. One of
our first initiatives was Star Wars or Mergers. I zipped my lips as the
familiar rope circles were laid on the lawn. As Tim sent us on to our first
round, people started applying what I have typically seen as the solution right
away. I found this pretty amazing, because, having witnessed this initiative a
lot, a group of 25 taking up to and over 45 minutes to come to a solution for the
diminishing resources of Star Wars while following the rules seems typical. Maybe
people with diminished physical resources intuitively think outside the box for
how to accomplish things physically because we are always solving problems of
that nature? I don’t know. It was cool to witness though. Couldn’t help but
feel proud of my FAmily.
 |
| photo credit: Woody Barr |
Another thing that happened right out of the box was as we made
our switches and our resources diminished, it wasn’t each person to his or
herself ensuring his or her own access to a circle. (This, in my experience, is
typically a race for the remaining circles. I have often seen facilitators
limit participant speed so collisions and bodily injury don’t happen.) We came
together as a team figuring out how everyone could best accomplish the task. It
definitely was not each person for his or her self or, even, subgroups (like
some of the nuclear families that were there) working within their subgroup to
make sure their own were taken care of. There was a palpable sense of doing it
together. FAmily.
 |
| photo credit: Woody Barr |
I know this is true for me. I am a capable person. I usually
know what I want to do and how I want to do it. So I really hate it when
someone grabs my wheelchair and takes me somewhere without asking me first.
This happens a lot. I am not a baby in a carriage. I am a grown #$% woman. I
don’t know that every person with FA there that day hates this like I do. I do
know I didn’t see it happening. I saw communication even within the urgency of
getting a circle. Communication. Respect. FAmily.
As I said earlier, FA causes people with it to slur their
words and have great difficulty speaking. One of my friends there that day has
a problem with this and works hard with a speech therapist to lessen his
impairment to communication. So, as Bill led us into Zoom with its dependence
on verbal communication, I was worried for him. (I know, I know, he is a grown
#$% man. I need to give him the same respect I ask for. I know he is capable.)
I did see people asking him what he wanted to say about his picture/piece of
information and saying it more loudly than he is able. I didn’t see anyone
looking at his picture and taking over for him. He was trusted to share what he
needed to and ask for the help he needed. Trust. FAmily.
At the end of the day, we moved on the high elements.
Watching everyone participate was such a high for me. Because PA made a video
of one of our group doing the Swing Shot, I get to re-live the experience
whenever I need a lift, http://youtu.be/75gWoZ1oap8.
Check it out!! Two members of our group on the high elements stood out for me
in particular, but really all of us were amazing. One participant who is an
adolescent as well as a fairly new diagnosis is very shy. I have known her for
a couple of years and haven’t really talked to her. (Not that I didn’t want to.
I have been trying to give her space from my more advanced FA self. I wanted to
talk to her when she was ready.) First of all, she started opening up even
before the high elements. But to see her grin as she did the Swing Shot was yet
another amazing moment. Nate made everyone doing the Swing Shot feel physically
and emotionally safe in his calm matter-of-fact way. Some of us remained at the
Swing Shot while another group went to the Flying Squirrel. A friend of mine
who is a tough fighter against some of the more serious FA symptoms did the
Flying Squirrel. I don’t know how Yew Cheong did it, but he managed to make my
friend and his very cautious mom feel safe. I didn’t see it, but I did see
pictures of his ear-to-ear smile (thanks Woody Barr). Even more precious to me,
he told me that he loved it. Finally it
was chilly up there on the Challenge Course. Because people were starting to
get uncomfortable, we ended before some of the able-bodied participants who
wanted to were able to do the Swing Shot. No one complained. Everyone was just
genuinely happy to have played a role in helping those of us with FA
participate. Graciousness. Kindness. Joy. FAmily.
 |
| photo credit: Woody Barr |
 |
| photo credit: Woody Barr |
I could really go on about our amazing community/FAmily and
how that day allowed me to truly experience it. My key take away is that while
I am surely unlucky to have FA, I am surely lucky to have these people in my
life. While FA needs to go away (the sooner the better!), our FAmily has
created a community a million times more powerful than FA.
Find out more about Friedreich’s Ataxia and, if you like,
donate to help us end it at the Friedreich’s Ataxia Research Alliance’s (FARA)
website, www.curefa.org.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Bamboo Resilience
Bamboo Resilience
A Project Adventure Trauma Relief Program for Japanese Teachers & Students
One year ago, on March 11, 2011, Japan was devastated by a major tsunami and the country is still reeling from the effects and aftermath. Not only is there still massive physical damage, but the emotional impacts on adults and children in the affected regions are considerable. We know that children are an especially vulnerable population after natural disasters. They need timely assistance in recovery so that they and their communities can work towards building a positive future.
Last November, Project Adventure Senior Trainer and Gloucester High School Teacher Jim Schoel travelled to the Miyagi Prefecture of Japan which was significantly impacted by the tsunami; he spent two days leading a workshop on Bamboo Resiliency for 22 Japanese teachers from the region including 3 PA Japan trainers. The goals for workshop participants were to develop
- An understanding of resiliency as it relates to traumatic events (Bamboo Resiliency)
- A deeper understanding of the Full Value Contract and how it can be used with trauma sufferers
- An understanding of how to facilitate students’ healing without them reliving their trauma
- A caring network by giving teachers a space in which to share their experiences teaching young people affected by trauma and giving opportunities to identify what future work is needed
Jim knows that Adventure programming is an excellent approach to addressing the needs of traumatized children and adults. For Tsunami victims, PA focuses on the concept of resiliency, or the ability to learn from and to incorporate the skills and strengths gained by surviving and recovering from trauma. Resiliency is a learned skill and greatly aids and improves recovery from traumatic events. This Bamboo Resiliency Trauma Relief Program is based on PA’s active learning methods and features an engaging group development process centered on the Full Value Contract.
Bamboo Resilience Full Value Contract
| Be Here | Creating commitment and connection so that healing relationships can form |
| Be Safe | Creating a safe environment to provide hope |
| Set Goals | Recognizing resiliency survival skills and accomplishment of tasks |
| Be Honest | Remember and mourn |
| Let Go & Move On | Honor the memories of friends and loved ones through resiliency which involves accepting powerlessness, cultivating group hardiness and practicing interdependence |
| Care for Self & Others | Group members build community through self-care, recognition of interdependence, empathic engagement and caring for others |
This two-day Bamboo Resiliency pilot workshop was extremely successful and therapeutic for the participating teachers who are now using what they learned in their work with affected students. The teachers were also very excited that this program model builds community and a safe supportive environment for students to develop their resiliency skills. Given the promise of this program and the enormous need for resiliency around the globe, PA wants to expand this program to work with hundreds of thousands of students and teachers. Over the next several months, PA plans to develop a train-the-trainer as well as a direct service model for Japanese teachers in Bamboo Resiliency, along with associated educational materials in both Japanese and English. This will be a collaborative effort with Project Adventure Japan, who has already trained more than 5,000 teachers in PA methods over the last 20 years.
If you are interested in learning more about our initiatives, please contact us, check out our website or leave your comments below!
*Bamboo trees are known for their flexibility, bowing to even the strongest winds, but still standing
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Project Adventure and ACCT Association for Challenge Course Technology
ACCT will hold its 22nd annual conference in Boston this year – February 9-12 at Westin Boston Waterfront in Boston, MA – 607 attendees are expected.
The proximity of the conference has gotten us thinking about PA’s long and interesting history with ACCT. In a recent interview, Bob Ryan, PA’s Director of Safety and RiskManagement , recalled a Ropes Course Builders Symposium in 1988 when members began discussing the need for an association. The first actual association meeting was held at an AEE conference at Smuggler’s Notch in the fall of 1993. There were 35 attendees. The founding members included: Adventure Experiences, Cradle Rock, Inner Quest, Project Adventure and Signature Research.
The Association was formed to develop challenge course installation standards. Bob recalled a moment when the original members were trying to come up with a name for the organization. When Association for Challenge Course Technology was suggested, Rich Klajnscek, a PA builder at that time, jumped out of his seat and said, “Then the acronym would be ACCT!!” The name was finalized in that moment.
Project Adventure has been represented on the ACCT board and on a variety of committees since the beginning. Randy Smith of Inner Quest served as the first board president; DickProuty of PA as the first vice president. Bob Ryan has served on the board for approximately 10 years.
PA is honored to support and participate with this essential and progressive organization.
Click here to join our Facebook discussion on ACCT!
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Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Payson Arizona Challenge Course & Training
Project Adventure recently completed installation of an extensive challenge course for the Payson, Arizona Unified School District. Donna Moore, coordinator of Health and Physical Education for the Payson schools had previously developed a challenge course program through a PEP grant for a school system in Safford, AZ. Project Adventure’s Bill Bates worked with her to apply for the Payson PEP grant.The extensive course includes a climbing tower, a dual zip wire and a wide variety of low and high elements. A team of physical educators from Payson’s high school, middle school and elementary schools have participated with exuberance in a series of trainings including Adventure Programming, Adventure Curricula for PhysicalEducation and a Technical Skills Intensive.
Click here to read the article from The Payson Roundup
Click here to read the article from The Payson Roundup
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
When doing team development, why focus on trust and building relationships?
by Peter Aubry
This question often arises when working with a client to design a team building day. It usually comes up in the process of creating a needs assessment. Sometimes this is followed by a request to just focus on problem-solving methodology and to stay away from the interpersonal dynamics on the team or individual team member needs. This area of work is often referred to as the “touchy-feely” aspect and many clients don’t want any of that in their program!
Amazingly enough, this request not to get “too touchy-feely” is made by a variety of clients including social service agencies, schools and corporate groups.
When this concern comes up, I usually address it in the context of the John Adair model.
The Adair model indicates that, in addition to communication, motivation and vision, the leader must attend to building the team, developing individuals and, yes, accomplishing the task.
In my experience, trust is the most essential element in good work relationships and especially in developing high performing teams. Although trusting each other at work makes everything much easier, it is not easy to achieve. In many work worlds, employees are rewarded for controlling and protecting information that insures they keep their position in the company. Knowledge is power and security, right? Expertise, technical or otherwise, makes you irreplaceable, right? So why share information and expertise in these environments?
Clients often ask, “Can we build the team and not deal with the problem of relationships on the team?”
How would you respond to this?
One answer I offer is that they can, but then, do they really need a team? Wouldn’t they be better served by a ‘work group’? A work group can deliver solid performance results when all is said and done. The work group has a central leader who directs various functions with all members reporting directly to him or her. They deal with all the conflicts and issues and are ultimately responsible for the results. So…yes you can deal with just the task at hand. Why then would you want a team? In their book The Wisdom of Teams, J.R. Katzenbach and Douglas Smith suggest that work groups are used when organizations are not looking for significant incremental performance results. A Real Team, on the other hand, is looking to achieve significant results, sometimes exponential, and has a group of people “who are equally committed to a common purpose, goals, and working approach for which they hold each other accountable.” Therefore, if we are going to build a team, don’t we have to address the people side of the equation?
There is a tendency in some work cultures to avoid conflict or have management deal with conflict. This can stem from an underlying mistrust in the organization, other individuals, the team or the team leader, etc. So how do you build a team of people if they are going to avoid conflict or have underlying trust issues? I would venture to say that you have to focus on relationships and the subject of trust as it relates to the team.
What would you say? At Project Adventure, we address this topic by having teams develop norms of behavior that allow them to deal with the issues that arise in an environment of safety. Having the ability and resources to deal with conflict that naturally arises on a team is critical. It is also important to define those issues that management, human resources or leadership must deal with versus the team.
Team Norms can be developed and tied to organizational values. If values are not specific, and stated, they can be developed as part of the leadership team development.
Moving a team toward high performance must include focusing on the relationships and trust that exist on the team as well as the level of commitment of individuals on that team.
How do you address team development at your workplace? Do you work as a team or as a work group? What helps your team to function better?
This question often arises when working with a client to design a team building day. It usually comes up in the process of creating a needs assessment. Sometimes this is followed by a request to just focus on problem-solving methodology and to stay away from the interpersonal dynamics on the team or individual team member needs. This area of work is often referred to as the “touchy-feely” aspect and many clients don’t want any of that in their program!
Amazingly enough, this request not to get “too touchy-feely” is made by a variety of clients including social service agencies, schools and corporate groups.
When this concern comes up, I usually address it in the context of the John Adair model.
The Adair model indicates that, in addition to communication, motivation and vision, the leader must attend to building the team, developing individuals and, yes, accomplishing the task.
In my experience, trust is the most essential element in good work relationships and especially in developing high performing teams. Although trusting each other at work makes everything much easier, it is not easy to achieve. In many work worlds, employees are rewarded for controlling and protecting information that insures they keep their position in the company. Knowledge is power and security, right? Expertise, technical or otherwise, makes you irreplaceable, right? So why share information and expertise in these environments?
Clients often ask, “Can we build the team and not deal with the problem of relationships on the team?”
How would you respond to this?
One answer I offer is that they can, but then, do they really need a team? Wouldn’t they be better served by a ‘work group’? A work group can deliver solid performance results when all is said and done. The work group has a central leader who directs various functions with all members reporting directly to him or her. They deal with all the conflicts and issues and are ultimately responsible for the results. So…yes you can deal with just the task at hand. Why then would you want a team? In their book The Wisdom of Teams, J.R. Katzenbach and Douglas Smith suggest that work groups are used when organizations are not looking for significant incremental performance results. A Real Team, on the other hand, is looking to achieve significant results, sometimes exponential, and has a group of people “who are equally committed to a common purpose, goals, and working approach for which they hold each other accountable.” Therefore, if we are going to build a team, don’t we have to address the people side of the equation?
There is a tendency in some work cultures to avoid conflict or have management deal with conflict. This can stem from an underlying mistrust in the organization, other individuals, the team or the team leader, etc. So how do you build a team of people if they are going to avoid conflict or have underlying trust issues? I would venture to say that you have to focus on relationships and the subject of trust as it relates to the team.
What would you say? At Project Adventure, we address this topic by having teams develop norms of behavior that allow them to deal with the issues that arise in an environment of safety. Having the ability and resources to deal with conflict that naturally arises on a team is critical. It is also important to define those issues that management, human resources or leadership must deal with versus the team.
Team Norms can be developed and tied to organizational values. If values are not specific, and stated, they can be developed as part of the leadership team development.
Moving a team toward high performance must include focusing on the relationships and trust that exist on the team as well as the level of commitment of individuals on that team.
How do you address team development at your workplace? Do you work as a team or as a work group? What helps your team to function better?
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
PA's Most Important Innovation?
by Dick Prouty
Recently, I was speaking to a group of visiting trainers who were being certified to deliver programs for us. I was speaking about our history and discussing the theme for our 40th anniversary this next academic year. Our theme is: 40 Years of Innovation.
One participant asked this question: What do you think has been Project Adventure’s most important innovation?
“Hmmm..big question,” I said. I paused for a long two or three minutes as I reviewed the many options that came to mind. I had often thought of PA’s history and our creativity, but had not tried to weigh the value of them compared to one another.
Here are some of the significant innovations of our 40 years that came to mind.
Challenge Course:
Before PA, there had been a few elements called a Ropes Course at OB. But PA basically invented the modern challenge course.
Academic Adventure based Integrated Curricula:
There had been experiential curricula using projects for more than a hundred years before PA in various schools settings in many countries, but PA put the risk edge in it. Three examples are:
Then there are our big three cornerstones!
Experiential Learning Cycle!
.
Challenge by Choice!
Full Value Contract!
Development of an Activity Base:
The activities published in Silver Bullets and QuickSilver and all of the other PA activities in publications or not. Used by literally hundreds of thousands of teachers and counselors world wide!
Quite a list of innovations and inventions of PA!
Then, I gave this answer to the participant:
Facility-based Adventure Education!
“Before PA,” I told the participants, “adventure education was thought of as a wilderness experience. Then Jerry Pieh and the crew at Hamilton-Wenham Regional School System in the 1970s developed a way to replicate the outcomes of Outward Bound by integrating its principles and concepts into a high school curricula. That eureka moment, the conceiving of this integrated experiential curricula program called Project Adventure, launched a whole movement that is now called facilities-based Adventure Education, as opposed to wilderness-based Adventure Education, in the traditional Outward Bound model.”
So, yes, Project Adventure, in and of itself, was a huge innovation, and, and in my humble opinion, really its biggest.
PA launched a movement for facilities-based adventure education that has now grown to be worldwide and far bigger in terms of numbers of students reached each year, than the original wilderness-based adventure education movement.
Now entering its fifth decade, PA is coming full circle with our new Building Respectful Learning Communities. BRLC is a way to get all of the outcomes in a school or agency to be more powerful and amplified. But that is a story for another blog…..
What do you think? What is PA’s most important innovation? How has it affected you and helped you to be a better facilitator/teacher?
Let me know at dprouty@pa.org.
Recently, I was speaking to a group of visiting trainers who were being certified to deliver programs for us. I was speaking about our history and discussing the theme for our 40th anniversary this next academic year. Our theme is: 40 Years of Innovation.
One participant asked this question: What do you think has been Project Adventure’s most important innovation?
“Hmmm..big question,” I said. I paused for a long two or three minutes as I reviewed the many options that came to mind. I had often thought of PA’s history and our creativity, but had not tried to weigh the value of them compared to one another.
Here are some of the significant innovations of our 40 years that came to mind.
Challenge Course:
Before PA, there had been a few elements called a Ropes Course at OB. But PA basically invented the modern challenge course.
 |
| New Static Challenge Course built for the Girl Scouts of Rhode Island |
Academic Adventure based Integrated Curricula:
There had been experiential curricula using projects for more than a hundred years before PA in various schools settings in many countries, but PA put the risk edge in it. Three examples are:
- Adventure Based Counseling
- Behavior Management Through Adventure (BMTA)
- RESPECT program is a structured, research-based program that adapts the proven concepts, strategies, and tools of Project Adventure’s experience and adventure-based instructional methods to change a school’s learning environment.
 |
| Artwork by: City Year & Timilty Middle School Students - Boston, MA |
Experiential Learning Cycle!
.
Challenge by Choice!
Full Value Contract!
Development of an Activity Base:
The activities published in Silver Bullets and QuickSilver and all of the other PA activities in publications or not. Used by literally hundreds of thousands of teachers and counselors world wide!
Quite a list of innovations and inventions of PA!
Then, I gave this answer to the participant:
Facility-based Adventure Education!
“Before PA,” I told the participants, “adventure education was thought of as a wilderness experience. Then Jerry Pieh and the crew at Hamilton-Wenham Regional School System in the 1970s developed a way to replicate the outcomes of Outward Bound by integrating its principles and concepts into a high school curricula. That eureka moment, the conceiving of this integrated experiential curricula program called Project Adventure, launched a whole movement that is now called facilities-based Adventure Education, as opposed to wilderness-based Adventure Education, in the traditional Outward Bound model.”
So, yes, Project Adventure, in and of itself, was a huge innovation, and, and in my humble opinion, really its biggest.
PA launched a movement for facilities-based adventure education that has now grown to be worldwide and far bigger in terms of numbers of students reached each year, than the original wilderness-based adventure education movement.
Now entering its fifth decade, PA is coming full circle with our new Building Respectful Learning Communities. BRLC is a way to get all of the outcomes in a school or agency to be more powerful and amplified. But that is a story for another blog…..
What do you think? What is PA’s most important innovation? How has it affected you and helped you to be a better facilitator/teacher?
Let me know at dprouty@pa.org.
Monday, July 18, 2011
PA Goes Green-er
Project Adventure’s Office Recycling Program
Although Project Adventure staff have been recycling to some extent for many years, the program has been intensified and energized since we moved to our current office building.
Staff are now encouraged to have bins in their own offices. There are signs throughout the building reminding people to Recycle. Our office cleaner supports and monitors our efforts. We have become more sensitive about paper use. Staff is also encouraged to drink Beverly water which is safe rather than bottled water.
PA’s Challenge Course Design and Installation (CCDI) department recycles all of their used steel cable and aluminum hardware in a 15 cubic yard capacity metal recycle dumpster which is
maintained by Waste Management Co. A week ago the dumpster was emptied with a total weight of 4.5 tons! Our installers are even taking it as far as dismantling retired strandvices to separate the different metals, making it easier to recycle and more cost beneficial. The money gained through this recycling initiative is used to purchase new tools and equipment for the CCDI department.
Recently PA staff worked together to create a staff vegetable garden on Moraine Farm. The project, headed by Norrie Gall, is well underway with three lush beds containing a wide variety of local vegetables.
Project Adventure Leveraging Technology
Project Adventure’s recent push into a web-centric future holds many significant green initiatives. With tools such as email blasts and online shopping carts, we are effectively able to reduce the amount of waste that we were producing.
Website (www.pa.org)
A new website provides the hub of our online presence and enables us to share valuable information about our business without sending hard copies and also saves time. Our e-commerce capabilities allow us to steadily decrease the number of paper orders that are being processed.
The Cloud
Today we are able to share information with each other internally through the use of “the cloud”! By hosting our information within a web-based server, we are able to share information among staff, anywhere in the country. Viewing these documents online drastically cuts back on the amount of printing and faxing needed.
Remote access for employees not working from our headquarters in Beverly has also allowed us to downsize our physical infrastructure resulting in the use of much less energy. Our new space is much cozier, but we like it here.
Blog
In the past, we produced a publication called ZipLines, a magazine that was sent to thousands in the adventure education industry. While we no longer publish ZipLines, we are focusing on utilizing our Blog as a new resource for our clients to access valuable PA and industry information. By sharing information electronically, we are not using all of the paper that we had in the past.
Social Media
Social media is another great example of how we are connecting with people without having to send print materials. The utilization of Facebook provides us with the opportunity to update our extended community on a regular basis. Our YouTube channel provides the opportunity to share videos with the world. We encourage our trainers, clients and extended networks to share their adventure education video experiences to continue showcasing the impact of our work.
Webinars
The use of webinars allows us to hold meetings with people from all over the world with the single click of a button. This technology allows us to use less gasoline and eliminates all of the energy associated with travel.
Email Marketing
For the past few years, Project Adventure has focused more on reaching our clients through email marketing techniques. By doing this, we have drastically reduced the amount of print materials that we send out. Help support our efforts by clicking here to join our mailing list!
Individual PA Staff Green Initiatives
Much of the energy behind PA’s current program comes from the green initiatives of individual staff. The following are examples of this inspirational commitment.
Nate and Michelle
Hollis, NH
After reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver, Nate and Michelle became more aware of where food comes from. They began to purchase food more locally – from a farm stand down the street and farmers’ markets. They have also begun to grow their own food. After a trip to Costa Rica, they decided to turn their lawn into a more edible landscape of herbs. Currently, they are partnering with their neighbors to raise free range chickens and to create an edible garden for children in the neighborhood.
Other initiatives that Nate and Michelle have taken on are:
• As often as possible, not buying bottled drinks
• Compost year-round using a method known as vermi-composting (www.vermicompost.net)
• Use a clothesline.
• Consider where things come from before buying. Use essential oils for cleaning, e.g., clove oil rather than bleach.
• Drive a Prius and a Subaru Outback.
• Try to work at home whenever possible.
Norrie
Beverly, MA
In a recent conversation about personal efforts to live more ‘greenly’, Norrie said, “I’ve begun to change my relationship to Stuff.”
In the process of this change, Norrie taught herself to sew and says that she will soon debut a skirt that she made from curtains that once hung in the PA conference center. She has also re-covered used chairs with curtains from PA. Additionally, she has made dolls for her baby out of her old clothes. And, this year, she made all of her Christmas gifts.
She has also given away many books, learned how to can and buys clothes for herself and the baby on consignment which says is not only more economical but also more fun.
In the food realm, Norrie says that, after reading Food Matters by Mark Bittman, she has begun to have two of her three meals a day be vegetarian. She has also made most of her own baby food and buys organic, following the guidelines of what is good to buy organic.
From biking more to gardening and hanging clothes on the line, Norrie says that life is good for her and her baby. Her exuberance affirms that.
Suzanne
Beverly, MA
Suzanne has participated in Beverly’s Community Garden in the past, but has since become a backyard gardener, growing raspberries, rhubarb, grapes, tomatoes and various herbs. She also believes in making food “from scratch”, not purchasing processed foods. She buys locally and is a member of Moraine Farm’s CSA.
Suzanne also uses a clothesline and waxes poetic about the scent of sheets that have hung on the line.
When she can, Suzanne walks to work.
PA Staff - Vehicles
When you arrive at Project Adventure's headquarters it is clear that the majority
of the staff are driving Subarus. After speaking with the owners, it was apparent that Subarus are preferred not only for their exceptional performance in New England weather but also Subaru's sustainability efforts.
CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)
Thirty acres of Moraine Farm land, owned by the Batchelder Trust, was donated to
the Trustees of Reservations. The trustees in turn have donated 2-3 acres to the Food Project (a program that teaches children how to farm).
The CSA’s season runs from May to October. Shareholders buy a season’s share and whatever is harvested during a week is divided evenly among them. Shareholders receive notification by email when the crops are ready.
North Shore Sustainability Partnership (NSSP)
History and Mission
Moraine Farm Advisory board’s long standing member Caleb Loring helped Project Adventure to establish the North Shore Sustainability Partnership in January, 2009.
NSSP provides participating North Shore schools and colleges with a forum for collaboration to significantly advance their sustainability education and sustainability operations initiatives. The scope of work in each participating school is to be enhanced by collaboration with the other schools and engagement with their extended school communities.
Goals
The NSSP sustainability mission is to be achieved by engaging participating school communities in active pursuit of the following goals:
1. To advance existing and new green initiatives that address degradation of the natural environment and
climate change
2. To develop and share sustainability curriculum and student-led efforts
3. To foster habits and cultures of generosity, responsibility, and an ethic to ‘give back’
4. To build community and pro-social skills within and across school communities to support sustainability education and practices
These goals will be pursued by sharing promising practices, pursuit of collaborative projects, and by schools supporting each other for achieving agreed upon goals.
Common Projects
Bottled water elimination has been significantly advanced in all participating schools. For some schools, this initiative has been extended from school-based to educating and influencing family behaviors.
Another common project is the support of local food production and awareness of local food consumption benefits. This involves the possibility of school food services buying locally, schools and families joining CSAs, growing food on campuses, students volunteering on farms and mapping environmental impacts or energy savings achieved through local food consumption.
What you can do to help
You can support our efforts by doing the following:
- Like us on Facebook to get frequent PA updates and special deals on products!
- Subscribe to our Blog to learn more about PA and the Adventure Education Industry.
- Join our e-newsletter mailing list to receive important updates and special deals.
- Subscribe to our YouTube channel for fun industry-related videos.
- When you take a workshop here at Moraine Farm, be sure to utilize our recycling receptacles.
- Call us if you have an old Challenge Course that is no longer in use. We would be happy to help dismantle and recycle it or potentially get it back up and running! 978-524-4500
Although Project Adventure staff have been recycling to some extent for many years, the program has been intensified and energized since we moved to our current office building.
PA’s Challenge Course Design and Installation (CCDI) department recycles all of their used steel cable and aluminum hardware in a 15 cubic yard capacity metal recycle dumpster which is
 |
| CCDI Recycling Dumpsters |
 |
| Retired Strandvice, ready for recycling |
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| PA Staff Garden |
Project Adventure Leveraging Technology
Project Adventure’s recent push into a web-centric future holds many significant green initiatives. With tools such as email blasts and online shopping carts, we are effectively able to reduce the amount of waste that we were producing.
Website (www.pa.org)
A new website provides the hub of our online presence and enables us to share valuable information about our business without sending hard copies and also saves time. Our e-commerce capabilities allow us to steadily decrease the number of paper orders that are being processed.
The Cloud
Today we are able to share information with each other internally through the use of “the cloud”! By hosting our information within a web-based server, we are able to share information among staff, anywhere in the country. Viewing these documents online drastically cuts back on the amount of printing and faxing needed.
Remote access for employees not working from our headquarters in Beverly has also allowed us to downsize our physical infrastructure resulting in the use of much less energy. Our new space is much cozier, but we like it here.
Blog
In the past, we produced a publication called ZipLines, a magazine that was sent to thousands in the adventure education industry. While we no longer publish ZipLines, we are focusing on utilizing our Blog as a new resource for our clients to access valuable PA and industry information. By sharing information electronically, we are not using all of the paper that we had in the past.
Social Media
Social media is another great example of how we are connecting with people without having to send print materials. The utilization of Facebook provides us with the opportunity to update our extended community on a regular basis. Our YouTube channel provides the opportunity to share videos with the world. We encourage our trainers, clients and extended networks to share their adventure education video experiences to continue showcasing the impact of our work.
Webinars
The use of webinars allows us to hold meetings with people from all over the world with the single click of a button. This technology allows us to use less gasoline and eliminates all of the energy associated with travel.
Email Marketing
For the past few years, Project Adventure has focused more on reaching our clients through email marketing techniques. By doing this, we have drastically reduced the amount of print materials that we send out. Help support our efforts by clicking here to join our mailing list!
Individual PA Staff Green Initiatives
Much of the energy behind PA’s current program comes from the green initiatives of individual staff. The following are examples of this inspirational commitment.
Nate and Michelle
Hollis, NH
After reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver, Nate and Michelle became more aware of where food comes from. They began to purchase food more locally – from a farm stand down the street and farmers’ markets. They have also begun to grow their own food. After a trip to Costa Rica, they decided to turn their lawn into a more edible landscape of herbs. Currently, they are partnering with their neighbors to raise free range chickens and to create an edible garden for children in the neighborhood.
Other initiatives that Nate and Michelle have taken on are:
• As often as possible, not buying bottled drinks
• Compost year-round using a method known as vermi-composting (www.vermicompost.net)
• Use a clothesline.
• Consider where things come from before buying. Use essential oils for cleaning, e.g., clove oil rather than bleach.
• Drive a Prius and a Subaru Outback.
• Try to work at home whenever possible.
Norrie
Beverly, MA
In a recent conversation about personal efforts to live more ‘greenly’, Norrie said, “I’ve begun to change my relationship to Stuff.”
In the process of this change, Norrie taught herself to sew and says that she will soon debut a skirt that she made from curtains that once hung in the PA conference center. She has also re-covered used chairs with curtains from PA. Additionally, she has made dolls for her baby out of her old clothes. And, this year, she made all of her Christmas gifts.
She has also given away many books, learned how to can and buys clothes for herself and the baby on consignment which says is not only more economical but also more fun.
In the food realm, Norrie says that, after reading Food Matters by Mark Bittman, she has begun to have two of her three meals a day be vegetarian. She has also made most of her own baby food and buys organic, following the guidelines of what is good to buy organic.
From biking more to gardening and hanging clothes on the line, Norrie says that life is good for her and her baby. Her exuberance affirms that.
Suzanne
Beverly, MA
Suzanne has participated in Beverly’s Community Garden in the past, but has since become a backyard gardener, growing raspberries, rhubarb, grapes, tomatoes and various herbs. She also believes in making food “from scratch”, not purchasing processed foods. She buys locally and is a member of Moraine Farm’s CSA.
Suzanne also uses a clothesline and waxes poetic about the scent of sheets that have hung on the line.
When she can, Suzanne walks to work.
PA Staff - Vehicles
When you arrive at Project Adventure's headquarters it is clear that the majority
CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)
Thirty acres of Moraine Farm land, owned by the Batchelder Trust, was donated to
The CSA’s season runs from May to October. Shareholders buy a season’s share and whatever is harvested during a week is divided evenly among them. Shareholders receive notification by email when the crops are ready.
North Shore Sustainability Partnership (NSSP)
History and Mission
Moraine Farm Advisory board’s long standing member Caleb Loring helped Project Adventure to establish the North Shore Sustainability Partnership in January, 2009.
NSSP provides participating North Shore schools and colleges with a forum for collaboration to significantly advance their sustainability education and sustainability operations initiatives. The scope of work in each participating school is to be enhanced by collaboration with the other schools and engagement with their extended school communities.
Goals
The NSSP sustainability mission is to be achieved by engaging participating school communities in active pursuit of the following goals:
1. To advance existing and new green initiatives that address degradation of the natural environment and
climate change
2. To develop and share sustainability curriculum and student-led efforts
3. To foster habits and cultures of generosity, responsibility, and an ethic to ‘give back’
4. To build community and pro-social skills within and across school communities to support sustainability education and practices
These goals will be pursued by sharing promising practices, pursuit of collaborative projects, and by schools supporting each other for achieving agreed upon goals.
Common Projects
Bottled water elimination has been significantly advanced in all participating schools. For some schools, this initiative has been extended from school-based to educating and influencing family behaviors.
Another common project is the support of local food production and awareness of local food consumption benefits. This involves the possibility of school food services buying locally, schools and families joining CSAs, growing food on campuses, students volunteering on farms and mapping environmental impacts or energy savings achieved through local food consumption.
What you can do to help
You can support our efforts by doing the following:
- Like us on Facebook to get frequent PA updates and special deals on products!
- Subscribe to our Blog to learn more about PA and the Adventure Education Industry.
- Join our e-newsletter mailing list to receive important updates and special deals.
- Subscribe to our YouTube channel for fun industry-related videos.
- When you take a workshop here at Moraine Farm, be sure to utilize our recycling receptacles.
- Call us if you have an old Challenge Course that is no longer in use. We would be happy to help dismantle and recycle it or potentially get it back up and running! 978-524-4500
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