First Descents: A memorable experience for all involved
First Descents, a nonprofit
organization that exposes young adult cancer survivors to kayaking
and other outdoor adventures to build confidence and other personal
skills, has been hosting camps for 11 years, and during that time
the experience has had nearly as great of an impact on the
volunteers as it has had on the participants.
Bigfork’s Dia Hollinger has helped with
First Descents fundraisers and brought meals to the camps for
several years, and for the last two years she has made an even
bigger commitment giving a week of her time to serve as a camp
mom.
“It’s exhilarating and exhausting,”
said Hollinger, who helped out at the fourth and final FD camp held
in the Kalispell and Columbia Falls area last week.
FD, which is headquartered in Colorado,
was founded by Kalispell native Brad Ludden. The Hollinger family
and the Ludden family are longtime friends, which was the original
attraction for their volunteering. However, after years of Dia and
her husband Scott taking dinners to the camps, and their son Dane
volunteering as a safety boater in his kayak, she has grown
attached to the organization.
“First Descents just embraces so many
of my passions — being out on the water, helping others and trying
to make a difference,” Hollinger said.
The group’s focus also hits home for
Hollinger, who is a survivor of thyroid cancer.
“I’m a cancer survivor and not only am
I here as a camp mom, but I’m also here getting the therapy that
comes along with it,” she said. “I get more than I give from being
out here on the river with these guys.”
Hollinger said that all one has to do
is look around during camp to be inspired.
“It’s proof that you can truly live
with cancer,” Hollinger said. “It doesn’t mean you have to stop
living, and you can live a truly adventurous, full life. Not just
live, but really live.”
She enjoys her time with the group so
much that she convinced some of her friends to join her as camp
moms for the week.
Terry Heinecke of Kalispell was one of
two other women that joined Hollinger as a camp mom — a job with
duties that include, but are certainly not limited to, preparing
and packing meals and making sure participants’ personal and safety
needs are well taken care of.
“I’ve been dying to be a part of First
Descents for a long time,” said Heinecke. “When Dia asked me if I
wanted to be a camp mom I was ecstatic.”
However, Heinecke’s excitement was
followed by an unpleasant surprise — the rare form of colon cancer
that she was diagnosed with seven years ago, and beat, had
metastasized.
At first Heinecke thought the diagnosis
would mean that she would have to miss the camp. But, a problem
with her insurance while at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
sent her back to Kalispell for a week, which happened to be the
same week she was to serve as a camp mom.
“What’s ironic is I’m a camp mom, but I
almost feel like a participant because I’ve gathered so much
strength and support and insight on this trip it’s been great,”
Heinecke said. “Next week I’ll be back in Rochester for treatment,
but I’m certainly leaving here fired up. That’s what First Descents
does though... This has been the best thing that could’ve happened
to me.”
Rounding out the trio of camp moms, or
“moms gone wild” as they jokingly called themselves on the raft
floating down the river, was Kellie Hilley of Bigfork. Although
Hilley hasn’t had a personal experience with cancer, being a part
of the camp was still eye-opening.
“I think it’s absolutely life
changingly amazing,” Hilley said. “I would say the participants
taught me what courage was all about. I’ve always wanted to do
meaningful work, and this is it for me. It’s also been a really fun
and exhilarating experience.”
An Evolving Program
Just as First Descents changes those
who are a part of it, the program itself is altered yearly because
of those who take part in it.
“We’re working on dialing in our
model,” said Rebekah Koenigbauer, who is First Descents’ events and
communications manager. “One of the big mottos in FD is to always
be changing and evolving, so we want to make sure we keep doing
that so we’re always meeting our participants’ needs.”
The organization has been growing to
fit the need of those interested in being a part of FD and its
programs. Last year there were 15 FD camps held, this year 27 camps
were held and 35 are scheduled for next year.
In addition to adding camps to ensure
as few applicants are turned away as possible, FD has also changed
the model for its camps.
“In the spirit of making sure we are
constantly evaluating whether or not we need to change, we adjusted
our program model,” Koenigbauer said.
Instead of having just one level of
camp for all participants whether they had been to an FD camp or
not, as has been the case in years past, camps are now broken into
different experience levels. FD1 is for those who are at camp for
the first time. A separate camp, FD2, is for those who are
attending a camp for the second or third time and those
participants are also asked to join Team FD — which is an extension
program created to challenge participants and volunteers and help
raise money for FD through adventurous activities.
“They’re asked to join Team FD and
that’s to help empower them and help reinforce the idea of paying
it forward by helping raise money to send a first-time participant
to camp,” Koenigbauer said.
For those who have moved through FD and
are still looking to challenge themselves, the organization has
established FDX, an extreme adventures program.
“It’s our manifestation of the
lifestyle and adventure-seeking mindset that everyone who is
involved with FD has from participants to board members,”
Koenigbauer said.
So far the adjustments to the camps are
working well for all involved Koenigbauer said.
“It allows the experience to meet them
where they’re at,” she said.
Helping the cause
Team FD is the organization’s biggest
fundraising action. Individuals choose their own physical athletic
challenge and use it to raise money for First Descents. It costs
about $1,000 to send one participant to camp for the week, so costs
add up quickly.
Team FD was started about two years ago
and it has already been a big success.
The organization hoped to raise
$300,000 through that effort by the end of this year. However, this
spring that goal had already been met. A new goal of $500,00 was
set, and that milestone is about to be met any day now too,
according to Koenigbauer.
For more information on Team FD, or
about First Descents, visit firstdescents.org.