Kayaking provides adventure experience

By Tina Ray
Paraglide

May 26, 2011

	Photos by Tina Ray/Paraglide Ray Mobley, 14, kayaks on Lake Rim, Thursday, as a participant in the Experience, Develop, Grow and Excel program. Youth centered for children in grades 1 to 12, EDGE! strives to provide them with adventure and life skills in partnership with Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation and Child, Youth and School Services

As the mother of five daughters, ages 7 to 19, Sonya Harriott routinely looks for positive activities in which they can participate.
Harriott has to look no further than the Experience, Develop, Grow and Excel program, which provides cutting-edge art, fitness, life skills and adventure activities in partnership with Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation and Child, Youth and School Services.

As part of EDGE!, Harriott’s twin daughters; Dania and Dorian, 12, enjoyed an evening of kayaking on Lake Rim, Thursday. The goal was to relish a sense of adventure and outdoor life.

“It’s educational. We saw a lot of different plants and fish,” said Dania, after returning from the kayak trip around Lake Rim. “It’s fun being in nature.”

Dania said she likes the EDGE! program because it allows her to meet new people, have fun and enjoy outdoor activities.

Sonya agreed.

“Opening up opportunities like this can only make them greater,” Sonya said, recalling that such advantages were unavailable in her years as a military brat. “When we were younger, they didn’t have stuff like this,” she said.

The activities are typically offered at no cost to participants and help to increase the quality time spent with Family members, she said.

The activities also come in handy now that her husband is currently deployed to Korea, Sonya said.

Participation allows youth to expand their knowledge of life in general, said Terri Jo Campbell-Brown, FMWR partnership specialist.

“I see them becoming more diverse and I love to see that,” she said.

“EDGE! provides things for kids to do that they never would’ve done if it wasn’t for the military,” Walker said. “It lets them venture out, and it really gives them confidence.”

Besides kayaking, other activities that EDGE! youth enjoy include ice skating, golfing, bowling, trap shooting and strength and conditioning training, said Angela Walker, program assistant.

One of the program’s goal is to introduce youth to FMWR facilities, increasing the likelihood that they will return as customers, she said.

Outdoor recreation partnered with Fayetteville-Cumberland Parks and Recreation staffers to facilitate the kayaking trip at Lake Rim, indicative of yet another benefit of being an EDGE! enrollee — tutelage received is provided by certified instructors.

EDGE! is open to youth in grades 1 to 12 who have valid registration with CYSS. Parent central registration may be done on the fourth floor of the Soldier Support Center or online at https://webtrac.mwr.army.mil.

Walker has seen participation in EDGE! positively impact the lives of another set of sisters in the program.

“When they first came, they were kind of quiet and introverted. Now, they’re talking more; outgoing. It helps them to know other kids. It gives them a common ground to talk about things because the military is really its own community,” Walker said.

For current and upcoming EDGE! events, visit www.fortbraggmwr.com/edge.php, or contact Camel-Brown, at 908-1199.

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