When Williamsburg students arrived at Elevation on April 26, they were expecting to see the enchanting bridges, paths, cottonwoods and campgrounds of Crawdad Canyon waiting for them to move in. Instead, they found debris scattered everywhere, footbridges washed away, and rumpled mud where there had once been flat ground, due to incredible flooding. How did our students respond? See for yourself.
One group dealt with the first matter of business: building a bridge across the stream so everyone could access water and bathrooms.
Students scavanging materials from a washed out bridge
Step one: Dismantle old materials
Jess, Ian and others moving a massive telephone pole to use as a support beam
Step two: Move all old materials, including two enormous telephone poles, to the selected location for the new bridge
Levi rigging a pulley
Step three: Rig a pulley system to hoist the poles across the swiftly flowing creek
Securing the support beam to the pulley system
Madi, Aurora and Kirsten pulling with all their might
Step four: Pull!
Settling the support beams
The completed foot bridge
Step five: Secure foundation poles and build deck
While these students were building the bridge, another group of students grabbed shovels, rakes, wheelbarrows, and buckets and moved thousands of pounds of sand to level the volleyball area.
Buckets, wheelbarrows, shovels, and lots of physical effort
Alaskan students like Kaleb enjoy the sunshing of Southern Utah
Kenzi leveling the sand
The third group leveled six dumptruck loads of crushed red cinders for our picnic area.
Red cinder, a trademark of Southern Utah
Ahnalise hard at work
Students showed an incredible amount of leadership
When you are expecting one thing, but are given something very different, it’s easy to complain. But instead of complaining, the Elevation students just got to work! It’s pretty amazing what 75 determined teenagers can do in two hours when they put their minds to it.
At Elevation Outdoors our students don’t just talk about leadership – they practice it. The entire Elevation staff was amazed at the level of energy, positive attitude and teamwork that students showed from the moment they arrived at Elevation. Thank you, students. You proved that you are leaders by the way you responded to the challenges you were given.
