Hello future and past IYELERS, this year’s summer trip of 2014 with the IYEL crew was at Whiskeytown. Whiskeytown was definitely a very interesting place to visit. Why Whiskeytown you may ask? Whiskeytown is a beautiful National Park that includes a lake, waterfalls, hot temperatures and biodiversity. It is what some may say, the perfect place for a summer trip because of the opportunity people have to swim into the National Park’s lake with perfect temperatures for the summer. The team also got the chance to kayak at Whiskeytown lake with the whole group, this gave the team a chance to work together as pairs on one kayak boat shared with two IYELERS.
The
IYEL team focused on creating four fun and educational lesson plans for the
trip that focused on freedom because of Memorial Day weekend and Whiskeytown’s
history. The lesson plans were presented by the four groups throughout the
summer trip to keep excitement and energy flowing. We also wanted our fellow
IYELERS to appreciate their time at the beautiful National Park by learning
more about it, and realizing how freedom is important to them today. One of our
groups focused on Social-Freedom and the way they expressed how Social-Freedom
is important to them is by introducing the topic to us at the top of a
waterfall, where they talked and had us participate in a game that made us
realize about the water advantages the U.S.A has vs. other countries like Chad.
The
group that focused on Whiskeytown’s history presented their lesson plan to us
by a really beautiful beach that was near our campsite. They had us learn all
about the gold miners because a lot of them would visit this National Park
before it was a National Park because of all the gold nuggets it included. They
also had us work together as a team in the beginning like the gold miners did.
We learned a lot of history about the national park from this group because
they were reading off a lot of statements and they wanted us to figure out
which statements were true and which statements were false. This way we
actually got to learn a lot about the park by having a little fun at the same
time.
Our
last day at Whiskeytown, a different group did a lesson plan about being
thankful about each other and why it’s important to be thankful for the people
around us. This lesson plan included a props activity where everyone had a card
with their names written on the card and everyone in the group wrote a prop or
why they were thankful for that person. This lesson plan made us appreciate one
another a lot more, and it made us a stronger team knowing that we are all
thankful for each other.
Our
trip to Whiskeytown was definitely something we are all going to take away with
us. We all learned a lot about the National Park and its history, and the
importance of freedom to us today. But the most important part of this trip is
that it made us a stronger team. We got the chance to spend a lot more time
with each other and to appreciate each other’s company, and it also gave us a
chance to reunite with some old familiar faces which are the IYEL alumni. We
were very glad to have them around and spend some time with us so that they can
share their wisdom with all of us.
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