Y-LINC 2013: Day One

Bienvenidos Amigoes! Welcome Friends!

Working in the idyllic SFA High Gardens, providing a green
break in the scenery for its students as well as food.

Our kids began the journey today with a service-learning project at Stephen F. Austin High School in Houston, where they worked on their school garden. That garden is part of a Project Learning Tree Greenschools! program. Greenschools! in a nutshell is a project in which a team of students investigates how their school impacts the environment, develops a plan to mitigate that impact, and implement their plan with grant funds from Project Learning Tree, thus making their school that much more environmentally friendly.

FNFGT has spurred similar efforts at Lantrip Elementary, as part of our "Greenschools Grapevine Initiative", which enables a student attending the schools in that Grapevine to get multiple chances to participate in impacting their school in meaningful ways. Y-LINC campers planted seedlings at Lantrip's garden. which again was part of a Greenschool project.

Then the students toured Nature's Way Biofuel plant, priming their minds for recycling and showing them how waste does not have to be wasted. Then, the +Texas A&M Forest Service gave them a tour of the +Red Cockaded Woodpecker habitat at the W.G. Jones State Forest in Conroe. Thanks goes out to Alex Schlueter and Ezequiel Villa for their expertise!

The kids still had energy even when
they arrived at HQ, around 7:00pm.

While they were on their trips this morning, Lyndi and Dave were getting some finishing touches ready at HQ, including filling 7+ water containers. Texas is hot, and we want are kids to be safely hydrated for their adventure. 

Our kids are learning real life skills here at Y-LINC: some helped to set the tables, brought down chairs and cleaned the dishes! Tomorrow, they will be assigned to the chores that make an event like this run smoothly by their youth leaders; everyone will get a chance to help with cooking food and cleaning up.

+Tracy Sanchez and +Naielli Hidalgo had their tents up first!

Though the light was waning, our Y-LINC campers pitched their tents and got settled in for the night, ready for what tomorrow has in store. They will be hiking, fishing, getting organized, and will get to meet Dale Synder, a FS wildland firefighter.

Dinner under starry strings of lights and solar lanterns.

We now got a photo album on Flickr! Check it out here! We also have convenient links all our social media sites in the top left, and visit our main page for more info! Like us, Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn, and subscribe to this blog for more updates!

Orientation provided by +David Clipson,
+Tamberly Conway and +John Boyette

Special thanks to our donors! Without you, Y-LINC would be alot less fun!

+Stephen Kob - Supporter

+David Clipson - Supporter

+Tamberly Conway - Supporter and Donor

+Warren Conway - Supporter and Donor

+Ed McClure - Supporter 

+Tracy Sanchez - Supporter, Donor and Fundraiser

+Alma D. Garcia - Supporter and Donor

+Anthony Gonzalez - Supporter

+Lorraine Gibson - Supporter and Donor

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Y-Linc 2013: Preparation Day

We are preppers on this day.

Our Magnificent Headquarters. 

We are breaking out the tents, getting out sleeping mats from storage, digging the fire pit, watching the osprey fly over the awesome lake view and listening for campers that are not quite here yet, but will be soon.

Tomorrow, our 10 campers and 5 Y-Linc alums will arrive at our home base.  Their first task will be to choose their tents and assemble them on the shores of the Sam Rayburn Reservoir, where they will spend their first night of the week under the stars. Some will be sleeping in tents for the very first time. 

We have been told there are hogs in the area, so we will see what adventures await us; hopefully none involving them, or skunks, our outdoor friends from afar.

Thus begins our Y-LINC adventure! Check out our photo album on our Facebook page, and be sure to click that "Like" button to get updates! Connect to our Twitter and LinkedIn pages too!

So in closing, we make this introductory wish, based on an old Irish blessing, on behalf of our campers:  

Our Youth will be camping here, along the shores of
Lake Sam Rayburn (no sleeping indoors for them!)

"May your troubles be less, 

and your blessings be more, 

and nothing but happiness 

come through your tent door!"

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Youth-LINC 2012 - Day Three

It may be safe to say that our drought is over, with as many days that it has rained this week.

But our campers spirits were high, as you can see campers Naielli Hidalgo, Blanca Garcia, and Alma Garcia turned breaking camp into the rain as another chance to giggle, as they're pictured trying to squeeze as much water as they can out of their tent in the middle of a rainstorm. We left Cagle wet, but we still left on time. Mike Ross (USFS Fleet Manager) gave a very relevant safety meeting on the dangers of flooding, warning us to stay out of creek bottoms even if the rain has ceased. After filling our ice chests with ice and water, we traveled to Houston.

Naielli, Alma, Blanca, and Enelidad drying out their tent
with love at Cagle Recreation Area.

Many of the campers grew up in Houston suburbs, and 4 of them went Youth-LINC's destination on Wednesday, to Stephen F. Austin High School. Lantrip Elementary, Jackson Middle School, and Austin High School are official Project Learning Tree Greenschools! due to the efforts of FNFGT, the school administration, and most importantly, the student body itself. Youth-LINC campers Naielli Hidalgo and Blanca Garcia performed a Greenschools! investigation that led to the installation of a 300 gallon rainwater catchment system. Duy Tran and Derek Morrison, biological engineers from Texas A&M University, assisted in the project's design.

Duy Tran (foreground left) and Derek Morrison
(foreground right)  explain the rainwater
catchment system at Stephen F. Austin High School 

Austin High earned its Green School status via its commitment to the environment and its decades old school garden/park area on campus. Youth-LINC showed its commitment by installing a sign commemorating the formation of the Greenschools! "Grapevine", weeded part of the garden, and installed smaller signs labeling the plants there.

Lantrip Elementary, Jackson Middle School, and Austin High
school are all on the Greenschool "Grapevine". The
Youth-LINC campers painted and installed this sign. 

After Austin High, we traveled to the Stephen F. Austin State park. Everyone carefully laid their belongings out to dry on clotheslines they hung themselves. Julio, Alberto, Andre, Franco Gonzales, and Blanca competed against eachother in a chili eating contest, using chiles harvested from the Austin High garden. The results were hilarious, and will be posted on FNFGT's Facebook page.

Alberto Gomez, Andre Saenz, Julio Bedolla, and Franco Gonzales before their faces were soaked in tears from their Chili-Eating contest. Blanca Garcia also participated. Watch the battle on our Facebook page! 

After dinner, the Campers puzzled out the sailor's knot, a leadership exercise that teaches interdependence and perseverance. The campers were tied together in a knot that looked impossible to get out of, but if they thought outside the box and worked together, they could slip out.

We also celebrated the birthday of one of our long time Amigoes, Lyndi Long. Lyndi had been with us since 2008, and led students at Youth-LINC last year. We are all very happy for her, and hope to have many more years of her enthusiasm and education ability.

Tomorrow, we will be tour Stephen F. Austin State park and a recycling plant in Houston, among a tornado of other activities.

"Like" the Sam Houston National Forest? Then donate for free.

If your reading our blog, we already know that you like nature. More than likely, one could even say you love it! Now, through BMW of North America, showing your love on social media is as good as showing your love with a donation, and strangely enough, it costs you nothing!

1 "Like" on Facebook = $1 for Nature!

BMW of North America has given us at FNFGT a unique opportunity to find funding to support our efforts to get more people outside, just by clicking "Like" on Facebook! Starting this Monday, we posted pictures of BMW's new car, the X1, shining in the sun at the shores of Double Lake Campground in the Sam Houston National Forest, part of the National Forests and Grasslands in Texas that FNFGT is all about. For every "Like" on this link, X1RTOSamHoustonnationalForest.com, BMW will donate a dollar to support the Sam Houston National Forest.

Our partner, the U.S. Forest Service has asked FNFGT to administer this grant and leverage the funds towards programs that help us with programs like, Youth-LINC, Prescriptions For Nature (NatureRx), Forest for Every Classroom, GreenSchools, TFS NatureLIVE!, The Children's Forest in Texas, and more! So, every "Like" directly goes to bringing more people, especially the little people, outdoors to enjoy the wonders of nature.

We are well on our way to our goal of $10,000 but we need your help! As of September 7th 2012, 11:54 pm CDT, we've got 4596 likes from 4596 loyal nature lovers! Add to our good progress by sharing this blog post! E-mail it, plus it on Google+, Facebook it, Tweet it! Everyone who reads has an opportunity to get more kids out there in the sunshine!

Getting kids up a going can be as simple as showing them how much you love getting out there. It can also be as simple as the press of a button!

Youth-LINC 2012 - Outdoor Nation Weekend (Days 6 and 7)

Have we been keeping our readership in suspense? The blog on the final days of Youth-LINC's week long adventure is finally here!

DAY 6

 

(Left) The Campers and a few more Outsiders posing with Woodsy! (Right) Ivan Levin and Woodsy Owl!

In case you never heard, Youth-LINC stands for Youth Leadership in Nature Challenge. Leadership has an will always be the cornerstone of this program. That’s why Youth-LINC 2012 final event, the Outdoor Nation Summit 2012 was such a perfect match.

Outdoor Nation's overall goal is to get more people outdoors through projects designed, implemented, and was founded on the principle that if the youth of our nation are to be encouraged to get outside, then they themselves should be making it happen.

First thing Saturday morning, Outsiders filled the Thompson Conference Center at the University of Texas at Austin after a continental breakfast provided by Outdoor Nation. Ivan Levin, Outdoor Nation's director and Chris Bui, the main facilitator, focused the Outsiders on creating a project through a very democratic process. After learning how to use the electronic keypads Outdoor Nation provided and answering a few demographic surveys, Outsiders voted on the most important rights and responsibilities related to being outdoors. Then Outsiders voted on the top 5 issues that prevent people from enjoying the great outdoors. Outsiders brainstormed projects based on one of those 5 issues or a different issue they thought was more important. Projects were fleshed out in little more than an hour and turned into Outdoor Nation. At the end of the day, the Outsiders we're charged with coming up with a 4.5 minute or less presentation to pitch their idea Sunday Morning.

Youth-LINC 2012, equipped with the rapport they developed over the week, collaborate on their succinct and beautiful undertaking

All the participants, especially Youth-LINC, were quickly electrified with new ideas and hope. Youth-LINC 2012 devised Nature's Art Project of Houston a series of art projects intended to beautiful local community parks and connect people to nature through art. Their first project is From Bleak to Beautiful, in which our Youth-LINC campers, now official Latino Legacy Amigoes del Bosque, will create a mural on the Ripley House Charter School (4410 Navigation Blvd, Houston, Texas 77011) using trash found around the area. Youth-LINC worked late into the night on Saturday refining their project, preparing for the presentation, and constructing the example mural pictured below. This was after they got finished dancing all their pent up energy under the thundering skies.

Me and My Wife Lyndi dancing under rolling strokes of light, brought to us by  a generous thundercloud over McKinney Falls State Park.

Alberto and Alma, creating a work of (recycled) art.

"Rain drops keep falling on my head..."

Yes, you read right: thundering skies. It rained AGAIN on Youth-LINC's camp Saturday evening, but it didn't even slow down their work on their project, or erase their smiles.

DAY 7

Ivan gave Youth-LINC this sagacious advice for their presentation: "the presenters that have everyone speak, that practiced the night before, and engage the crowd do the best." Youth-LINC took that to new level with a mini-parade of singing and shouting as they brought their beautiful up front. Ivan Lara lead the crowd in song and dance, and we got at least one positive response to the energy on @FriendsNFGT. The campers did an excellent job talking about their project and we are very proud of them.

After a jumping presentation....

Their contagious enthusiasm paid off: we won a $1,000 dollar grant from Outdoor Nation! The project will soon be moving forward. We will keep you posted on the project as details come.

Go Youth-LINC!

...Youth-LINC 2012 Jumped for joy! A $1000 grant from Outdoor Nation was ours!