'Outward Bound could be free to M3 children'
Every child in the final year of middle school will be sent on an Outward Bound course at the expense of the government.
Or at least, that's the aim of a ten-year plan of policeman Mark Norman, the veteran head of Bermuda's local scheme at Paget Island.
If the plan takes off, then staff in the corporate world would stand to benefit from the team-building activities as well as the kids.
Mr. Norman said that the programme envisions raising as much as $30 million over a ten-year period to pay to renovate buildings, increase clientele, and enlarge family and other programmes in team-building exercises.
"If it all went through we'd have 26 full time staff in 10 years' time," he said.
The plan was born two years ago and Mr. Norman will be pushing hard at the end of the summer to get it going with help from the whole island.
"Hopefully, it'll also include Youth & Sports and the Education Department, he said, "to have every student in a particular academic year coming down here in school time and doing a five-day course."
That would give Bermuda some bragging rights, he added, as the only country in the world where government actually sponsors every student.
Bermuda's small enough, he said, that it can actually be done. His idea is that the M3 year should be used because those students are on the threshold of high school.
"Each course will draw students from each of the [middle] schools," Mr. Norman explained, "and, by the time they go to CedarBridge, they've all mingled and mixed."
He cited U.S. statistics suggesting that the five-day Outward Bound course has a positive effect on 68 per cent of participants. His hope is that every child will do an Outward Bound course at 13 or 14 ? at the expense of the government.
Meanwhile, this summer's programme is wide open for more young people to sign up, especially for the August 7 to 11 course and after.
"This year we're down on our numbers," he observed. "People just haven't come because part of the course is staying here and camping out overnight and that's been taken away purely because of a staffing shortage."
That, Mr. Norman emphasized, hasn't changed the course except for the residential element.
"Rafting, canoeing, kayaking," he listed the opportunities that still abound. "There's abseiling, rock climbing and a number of ropes courses. There are also problem-solving and team-building activities."
The cost of $200 a week includes the equipment used, the activities and lunch.
For more information call Mr. Norman at 515-5736 or go online at
www.outwardboundbermuda.org.
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