That's me in the back row blue helmet and Mr. PD is up front in the green shirt. Mr. PD and I happen to both be, at the moment, serving as youth leaders in the Young Men(YM) and Young Women(YW) program at our church. Mr. PD is the president of the YM's group and I am the second counselor in the YW's presidency. As the second counselor I'm over the group known as "Beehives" which are the 12 and 13 year old girls. Right now the Beehive group is the biggest group we have.
This rafting trip was a youth rafting trip and we got to go along as leaders. I was a little concerned at first about taking a group of mostly 12 and 13 year olds rafting on a half day trip on the Ocoee River near Chattanooga TN. The upper part of the river features a one mile Olympic Course featuring Class V rapids. We stuck to the middle half of the river which contains several Class IV and III rapids, much more suitable to inexperienced, scared tweens.
I was pleasantly surprised by their enthusiasm in the face of danger! They all did tremendously well and nobody flipped their raft that didn't mean to. OK we were the only raft to flip but that was on purpose, because we wanted to, and the guide told us he was going to flip us. Hopefully we didn't traumatize the two 12 year olds in our raft! While this trip wasn't as exciting as our trip last year (Mr. PD and I did the upper and middle half last September) it was super exciting to the youth and it was fun to see them enjoying something that none of them had ever done before. Our guide was excellent and gave us a fun thrilled ride while keeping us safe. He's one of the best guides we've had.
Do you like white water rafting? Is it on your bucket list? or do you think that we're plain crazy?
Norma
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