welcome to
the circle up we're glad you're here.
THE SUMMER ISSUE MAY 2023
welcome to the circle up You're hopefully used to hearing from us monthly in your email inboxes, but starting this summer, we plan to periodically start sending a more in-depth newsletter as well: to share a look at the things happening at Life Adventure Center, some of the stories of our programs and partners, and most importantly, the impact and resilience-building we're having right here in Central Kentucky. For anyone not as familiar with us, Life Adventure Center is a nonprofit that builds resilience through outdoor adventures with a trauma-informed approach. We believe people are resilient by nature. Our programming uses outdoor adventure to unlock internal resilience. More resilient people have better health outcomes, but also have the power to increase the resilience and connectedness of their classroom, workplace, family and community. We believe work we do here has the power to change our community for the better - for all of us. We look forward to sharing more with you through this newsletter! Credit to Keith Haas, LCSW and former Life Adventure Camp counselor, who shared that Life Adventure Camp daily meetings used to be called "the circle up", which we loved so much we immediately co-opted it. Thanks for following along - we're glad you're here!
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in this issue: Welcome to The Circle Up PAGE 01 Program Spotlight: Buckley Wildlife Sanctuary Spring Break Camp PAGE 02 Partner Spotlight: Woodford County Schools PAGE 03 Mountain Biking Returns PAGE 04 Storm Recovery: Efforts and Outlook PAGE 05 2023 Donation Impact PAGE 06
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Program Spotlight: Buckley Wildlife Sanctuary Spring Break Camp At long last, camp has returned to Buckley Wildlife Sanctuary! Led by our Environmental Educator, Kyle Yarrow, our first camp this year was our Spring Break Adventure Camp at Buckley. Campers were able to enjoy a week at the Sanctuary, with daily hikes, time at our nature center and bird blind, combined with our resilience building programming, carefully sequenced to build the 7 C's of Resilience: Campers listened and looked at the Marion Lindsay Bird Blind, where they saw woodpeckers, cardinals, wrens, and more! Competence, Confidence, Connection, Character, Contribution, Coping, and Control. In the coming months, we also plan to bring several free and open-to-the-public events to Buckley, including a story walk, night hikes, and more! Be sure to follow us on facebook and instagram, or get on our mailing list, to make sure you're the first to know about upcoming offerings and events.
Buckley Wildlife Sanctuary is located at 1305 Germany Road, Frankfort, Kentucky and remains open to the public for hiking every Wednesday through Sunday from 9am to dusk. We invite you to explore our trails and consider supporting our efforts in managing this incredible local resource!
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“Children deserve to grow and learn in a place and alongside a force that is as wild and alive as they are.”
Nicolette Sowder PAGE 02
Partner Spotlight: Woodford County Public Schools "We saw immediately growth [and] more buy in from our young adults, who may not have strong and healthy relationships in the home. We were able to really strengthen those relationships in school and able to push that resiliency from not just an educational standpoint, but from an employability conversation." Logan Culbertson Principal Safe Harbor Academy
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Woodford County students during an Equine-Assisted Learning day at Life Adventure Center
For the 2022-2023 school year, we have had the enormous privilege of working in and with every level of public school in Woodford County. Through a grant from the Face It Coalition and Kosair for Kids, we provided programming both in school and on-site at Life Adventure Center to kids from every elementary school -- students selected by the school for those who would most benefit from an outdoor adventure intervention. These programs have focused on building competence, confidence, and communication skills through team-building activities, equineassisted learning activities, zip-lining and more! This summer we will welcome many of these students for a week-long camp to further develop these skills and continue to build their internal resilience! Thanks to funding from the Kentucky Social Welfare Foundation, we have also been able to offer a similar program at Woodford County Middle School, as well as fund some of our longitudinal work with local non-profit Mentors & Meals. We have also continued our years-long partnership with Safe Harbor Academy, the alternative public high school here in Versailles, where we work with educators and administrators to unlock resilience skills, and work on self-regulation, frustration tolerance, anger management, and more. The work we do is so much more than outdoor adventure - it has the potential to create a better classroom environment, but also better prepare our participants for their future - whatever that might be. PAGE 03
Mountain Biking Returns bikes are back at Life Adventure Center! As outdoor adventure enthusiasts, we are so excited to revive our Mountain Biking program and share our extensive trail system that is maintained by Kentucky Mountain Biking Association with our participants! Many of the groups we partner with either stay on campus for multiple days or come back to our campus multiple times across the year. We value providing these participants with unique experiences facilitated in a supportive environment. Our mountain biking program gives us another tool in our outdoor adventure toolkit and allows us to take advantage of the incredible trail system we have right here on our property! Special thanks to donors during last year's Good Giving Challenge for making the initial investment of new bikes possible, and to Broomwagon for the donation of our helmets! LAC Staff (and Rio!) after the new bikes were delivered
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Storm Recovery Efforts We are grateful to all the individuals on our team and in our community for their support in our recovery efforts from the March storms! Our collapsed hay barn has been completely removed and cleared while we carefully consider what makes the most sense for our future needs in that location. Many elements of our challenge course remain fully inspected and operational--including our climbing wall and zipline. We are working diligently with qualified contractors to rebuilding our full high course in preparation for our busy summer season! Resilience can be defined as an ability to overcome the unexpected and we are proud to be doing just that.
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We need your support! We work with people across Central Kentucky, primarily youth, to build internal resilience through intentionally sequenced outdoor adventure programming - activities like ziplining, equine-assisted learning, canoeing, archery, and more! We are able to provide that programming to some of the people who need us most absolutely free to them -- thanks to the generous support of donors like you! In 2023, your support has enabled us to provide: a week-long camp for Big Brothers/Big Sisters of the Bluegrass offered - completely free to their participants! scholarships for 20% of the participants in every camp and activity we offer to the public - and next year we are committed to increasing this number to 30%! Mobile Units at Lansdowne Elementary School for students in their Clearview Project (for children with identified high ACEs - Adverse Childhood Experiences) On-site experiences for New Vista's Schwartz 28-day residential facility On-site experiences and mobile units for Sunrise Children’s Services and their therapeutic residential centers for youth and MORE!
Click here to give today and help us serve even more deserving people! the circle up
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