Brian is our Adventure Therapy guy. He started at the Center at the beginning of the year and has been taking the kids hiking and camping and is involving them in all sorts of outdoor activity. Recently, we had a rappelling day. The boys got to come up to the apartment...and then jump out the 3rd story window.
Two of the older boys took turns helping with the safety line.
Our first guy to go down was very enthusiastic...until he was standing in the planter outside the window.
Brian stayed up top to make sure everyone was strapped in safely and knew how to control their descent. And to give a friendly push when needed! The worst part is scooting your butt off the edge!
That third floor feels even higher when you are dangling up there.
It didn't take any of the boys very long (after scooting off) to decide that they LOVE rappelling!! Most of them came back upstairs for 2nd, 3rd, and more descents.
One of our "tougher" boys was clearly nervous from the moment Brian started putting him in a harness.
During some instruction as to how to descend without scraping his knees, Brian mentioned that he should "be like Spiderman" and that was all it took!
He jumped and bounced and made his way down (and several more times later) constantly declaring that he was Spiderman.
It was interesting to see so many of our cocky little guys shaking in the knees. And awesome to see some of our generally quiet, out of the way kids jumping right out. Everybody has to let go of the edge at some point.
The hopeless romantic asked me to record a goodbye message for his girlfriend once he got to the first ledge and realized he couldn't climb back up.
While he clearly didn't enjoy that first "lean all the way back" moment, I promise he loved it once he reached the ground!
Even our volunteer Chef couldn't resist going down a few times and coaching the boys some. I also got to go down a few times. Love it!
Considering how many boys went down, our safety record didn't come out too badly.
Just kidding!!
