The SAIL Pathfinders joined hundreds of other volunteers this weekend to join in the 30th anniversary Lake Travis Cleanup. Setting out early on a Sunday morning, we headed to Pace Bend Park, learned a bit about the park, discussed safety, got our instructions and cleanup gear, and headed out for two hours of picking up trash along the shoreline. In addition to the usual cans and plastic bottles, as well as numerous styrofoam worm boxes, the Pathfinders picked up sandals, hats, fishing line, and even part of a canopy. After helping to keep our local waterways clean, we headed to our favorite ice cream joint before finishing up for the day. It is always a great way to start to the Pathfinder year by getting outdoors and doing something useful for the community and for the natural world.
 For our first meeting back, the SAIL Pathfinders welcomed our new members, spent some time learning (and reviewing) basic drill, and engaged in a team-building and communications-skill exercise. The Pathfinders (and staff) were split into teams, and each team had builders, runners, and lookers. The object was to replicate a statue made of gumdrops and toothpicks, but the challenge was that only the lookers could see the original. They tried to describe it to the runners, who relayed the message to the builders. The builders could ask questions to the runners, who relayed those to the lookers, and so on. It was a fun but challenging exercise, sometimes frustrating, sometimes rather funny, but ultimately both teams were able to build something similar to the (perhaps overly complex) model, and learn a few things about how to share information, how to collaborate, and how to better understand the challenges and limitations other team members may be facing. Next weekend we are looking forward to volunteering at the Lake Travis Cleanup, our first service project of the year.  Its a new Pathfinder Year, and although little can top a trip to Wyoming with nearly 60,000 other Pathfinders, we have plenty of activities, outreach, service, and other programs scheduled for this year.
Our activity theme this year focuses on our primary local river, the Colorado River. As a club, we will be working on the Rivers and Streams, Waterfalls, Dams and Levees, and Bridges honors, in addition to our IA classwork, camping, hiking, kayaking, community service and all the other things we “normally” do. We encourage you to get a head start learning about our local river ecosystems and the way we as people interact with them, by checking out the honor helps pages. We will kick off September volunteering for the Lake Travis Cleanup (an annual event for the club). This year marks the 30th year of the lake cleanup, and the SAILs have had the honor of participating for almost half of those. We used to join one of the dive boats and clean up odd coves they would take us to, but we now focus on shoreline cleaning. Keeping our local parks and waterways clean is an important task and responsibility. Later in September we will have our club overnight, which, weather permitting, will be paired with some time on Lady Bird Lake, kayaking or canoeing up to see the Tom Miller Dam and Red Bud Isle. Our October club campout will be a time to practice our field rescue and outdoor first aid skills, try casting some animal tracks,, and enjoy a weekend on the banks of the Colorado River. Lots more to come, so welcome back to the returning SAILs, and welcome aboard to our new members this year! (Bonus to the first Pathfinder who can identify where the picture above was taken) |
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