Putting Junior Leadership Lake Martin to the Test

Today, we were joined by students from across Tallapoosa County who are participating in this year’s Junior Leadership Lake Martin class program. Each year in the fall, a new group of juniors from local schools visit Camp ASCCA for a day of teambuilding and an opportunity to get to know their fellow junior leaders. The participants are from Dadeville High School, Reeltown High School, Horseshoe Bend High School, and Benjamin Russell High School.

The mission statement of Junior Leadership Lake Martin reads, “Junior Leadership Lake Martin will serve as a vehicle to help develop potential leaders for assuming positions of responsibility in their communities by helping to ensure that our youth have the training and skills required to meet the challenges they will face as future leaders.” Upon their arrival, the students were immediately thrown into training and challenges by the ASCCA staff. First, they were tested at the gym with a few games that taught them to remember that everyone is at a different point in life, communicates differently, and that you must respect and value everyone you encounter.

Later, the students were split into two groups that were a mixture of students from each school, and Program Director Amber Cotney and Outdoor Education Director Cody Graham put them to the test on the low ropes course. The groups were challenged to complete tasks that they often did not think were possible and were pushed to think critically in order to finish them as a team. Some activities were physically challenging like the vertical wall and swing on the nitro course, while others were brain teasers.

After each activity, the ASCCA staff took a couple minutes to ask the students what they learned and how or if they felt as though they truly worked as a team. As the day progressed, the students became more confident in their ability to work as a team because they were starting to get to know each other.

Finally, the day of teambuilding ended with a visit to the Ziptower, and the students were encouraged to cheer for their fellow leaders as they took on the vertical wall and rode down the tallest zip line at ASCCA. Some students were unsure about the climb, but that did not keep them from trying to make it to the top. The Ziptower is a great challenge to end the day on as the students have the opportunity to take what they learned throughout the morning and put it into practice through encouragement and determination as a team.

As the Junior Leadership Lake Martin program continues to develop leaders for the future, we are thankful to have the opportunity to participate in the growth of the students each year. We hope that they leave Camp ASCCA with a newfound confidence in their personal abilities and in their fellow leaders across Tallapoosa County. The students have the opportunity to carry the lessons learned today with them into their collegiate future and beyond. You can check out more moments from today’s visit from Junior Leadership Lake Martin by visiting our Flickr page here. You can also keep up with all things Camp ASCCA by following us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!