community
Cedar Ridge Hosts YES! Camp for Teens
By Scott Laird
Cedar Ridge Camp in Vernonia
recently hosted a week-long experience
for teens. The YES! Camp, (Youth
Empowerment Seminar) was held
during Spring Break from March 20-
25 and is a new opportunity that Cedar
Ridge is exploring. From the looks of
things, this first trial was a great success.
The YES! Spring Break Camp
was facilitated by the International
Association for Human Values (IAHV),
a non-profit committed to enhancing the
quality of life for all people by building
a global community based on the human
values we all share in common, while
celebrating the diversity of cultural and
religious identities.
Through education and outreach
programs, IAHV aims to revive human
values that include a sense of belonging
to a common humanity, respect and
consideration for all people, compassion
and non-violence, a commitment to
preserving the natural environment, and
a social service ethic.
One component of IAHV’s work
is their Youth Empowerment Seminars
for schools, a dynamic program that
provides teens with a comprehensive set
of tools to manage their emotions. YES!
broadens young people’s vision of the
world and provides practical knowledge
and skills they need to realize their
highest potential.
The YES! Camp that Cedar
Ridge hosted was an intensive version
of the twenty-hour school program.
“It’s a program for teens and
young adults where they learn tools and
techniques to manage their mind, their
emotions and their feelings in a healthy
and positive way,” explains Natalie
Kaharick, who has taught the program
in schools, and served as a camp
councilor for the week at Cedar Ridge.
“It’s also very fun. It’s really a way for
kids to start to understand and have an
awareness about how their mind, their
feelings, their breath and their body are
all connected. It’s about giving these
that students are not able to focus on
academics because of stress which is
expressed in different ways: acting out,
attention-seeking, depression, anxiety,
fatigue due to lack of proper sleep,
poor attendance etc… Through YES!’s
stress-relieving techniques, students feel
calmer and more
alert. A state of
calmness and
alertness is the
ideal state in
which to learn
because
the
mind becomes
receptive to new
information.
Making
the
program
fit
school
schedules
is
c h a l l e n g i n g .
“We have to
Campers enjoy a healthy meal at Cedar Ridge during the YES!
be
flexible,”
Spring Break Camp
e x p l a i n s
tools to kids now, so that now, and when Kaharick. “We don’t change the
they are adults, they can live a really program, but we adjust how we deliver
healthy life, full of enthusiasm and it, so that every school can accommodate
opportunity.”
it.”
“In a way, it’s like planting a
The camp in Vernonia was a
seed— these are things they can come totally different experience. “Unlike the
back to and use later in their life,” schools where, usually we are with the
continues Kaharick.
students for one period at a time, here
According to the IAHV website, we get to be with them 24/7 and see how
the school program has been extremely they operate in an environment which
successful. “We all want students to is both calming, because they’re out in
nature, but at the same time, is almost
volatile because they are out of their
comfort zone and they’re rooming with
diverse people,” says Justin McGurrin,
who also teaches the YES! Program in
schools and acted as a camp councilor at
succeed in academics, reading, writing,
mathematics, etc., so traditionally we
take the direct approach. We put more
and more emphasis on pushing our
students to learn. For some, this has
worked, yet for many it has not worked.
We have not taught our students the tools
or techniques to increase their learning
capacity. In classrooms, we often see
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Cedar Ridge. “So we really get to see
people’s true colors and their colors
when they’re pushed. “It’s an ideal
situation to teach this course.”
The camp in Vernonia mixed
instruction in healthy eating habits,
exercise, and breathing techniques, as
well as play-acting and skits, games,
rope course challenges and other camp
activities like basketball, hikes, and
singing campsongs.
“What was really great about
the camp experience was having the
time and space to really get to know
each student on a personal level,”
said Kaharick. “Getting to see how
they interact with the other students.
Ultimately, for me as an instructor, it
was very interesting, because I was here
with them, to see how they would apply
the techniques in their social circles
throughout the day.”
Cedar Ridge owners Britt and
Larry Steele say they are very excited
to be able to offer the Camp at Cedar
Ridge. “We felt this first week was
really rewarding and we got positive
feedback from everybody— the teachers
and councilors, the participants and
our staff,” said Larry Steele. “We’re
very excited to offer this, not just to
the Portland area ,but to kids from all
around the country and probably even
internationally.”
According to Steele, Cedar
Ridge plans to bring back the camp
again this summer, with the YES! Camp
for Teens and a variation of the camp
for 8-12-year-olds sometime in July and
August; details are still being finalized.
They also plan to hold camps next year
during Spring Break.
