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Getting lost helped teen
find new opportunities
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Tyron Bridgewater smiles a lot. His grin stretches as he explains why he was chosen among applicants nationwide for an all-expenses-paid trip to outdoor leadership school in Idaho this summer.
“I got lost,” says Tyron, 14.
Last winter, while representing Operation Breakthrough at a leadership camp in Colorado, Tyron, by accident, got left behind at ski resort outside Aspen. Then a seventh grader, Tyron had no phone and no money. He asked someone which bus would take him back toward Aspen.
“I had to ask the driver to let me on for free,” Tyron says.
He didn’t know the address where he was staying, but while looking out the bus window, he recognized a landmark. He knocked on the correct door about 15 minutes after his counselors realized that they had each thought Tyron was in the other’s vehicle.
“He was really calm about it,” says Tim Shortell, outdoor program coordinator for Aspen Youth Experience (AYE). “It was his group that was hysterical.”
Tyron exhibited “the kind of fortitude we like to see” at the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), says Tim who is also an instructor there. Tim nominated Tyron for a scholarship to the nationally renowned school that teaches people of all ages and walks of life to survive in the wilderness.
“It was his own personality and resume that got him accepted,” Tim says.
Tyron’s background includes common challenges for at-risk, urban youth, as illustrated in an essay he wrote as part of his camp application.
“Being in foster care was hard for me, being separated from my mom. I took care of my 3-month-old little brother….” wrote Tyron, who has been back with his mother for several years. “Since I don’t have a dad I have gotten stronger since I am the man of the house, and I have more responsibility.”
Tyron’s personality, says Center therapist Lisa Bower, “is delightful. He is polite, well-mannered and kind.”
His resume includes two trips to AYE leadership camp and two years of work for a local contractor who has taken Tyron under his wing.
“I do roofing, cement, building walls in houses, mowing,” says Tyron, who paid for part of his plane ticket to Idaho with his earnings.
Thanks to two weeks of hiking through Idaho and Wyoming with a 50-pound pack on his back, Tyron can now add map-reading, compass navigation, knot-tying, leave-no-trace camping and outdoor cooking to his resume.
The first few days, instructors guided Tyron and his fellow students, Tyron says. “Then they stepped back and let us handle it.”
The best parts? “Cooking quesadillas with chocolate and peanut butter… Listening to the stream, and the sunsets – beautiful sunsets.”
When Tyron returned from NOLS, his pride was obvious. “His smile,” Lisa says, stretching her arms wide, “was THIS BIG!” |
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