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The View Was Fantastic

Kinship Kids and Mentors went to great heights to conquer some fears.

Recently our Kinship of the Park Rapids area took some thrill seekers to the Character Challenge High Ropes course just north of Park Rapids, Minnesota.  The kids and their mentors participated in several low ropes activities and team builders to begin the process of working as a team and learning to trust each other.  The kids were then introduced to what is called “special elements”.  The Kinship Kids were asked to climb the “Leap of Faith”, a telephone poll with spikes to assist with the climb, where they would attempt to stand on the top and declare a goal that they would like to achieve.  The other special element was the Giant Swing, where team mates helped hoist the participant 40 feet in the air.  After the reassurance that the person in the air could trust his team mates, the count down began and the youth hanging in the tree tops pulled the cord and did a tremendous drop and swing from 40 feet up.  There were many screams heard but lots of smiles to be seen as the kids did something they never felt they would be able to do.

Following these special elements, the Kinship Kids and mentors were served a quick supper of brats and burgers and the fixings before the adults showed their courage on the high ropes portion of the course.  With lots of encouragement from their kids, the adults walked their way over wires, across bridges and many other obstacles that were up in the trees before they were able to enjoy the quick ride to the end via the zip line.  Once the adults had completed the tasks, it was the kids turn to reach out of their comfort zones and climb up into the trees.  Many were heard saying “no way”, I’m not doing that.  But with some encouragement, most of the youth were able to reach the finish line as they zip lined to the end.

While the kids were busy with the high ropes, our Kinship Mentors were treated to a great training which was presented by Michelle Fritze.  This training was an eye opener for many and opened up a lot of discussion and answered a lot of questions they had about trauma and the impact that this has on our kids.

This fun-filled activity was paid for through a Covid Relief grant that the Untied Way out of the Bemidji area offered.  Kinship was able to receive these funds due to the summer camps and the mentor trainings that were all cancelled due to Covid-19.

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