Below are excerpts from the Alpine Fund's February 2006, Report to Board of Advisors.
Alpine Fund continued to utilize its Alpine Learning Center, with two more weekend trips.
The Alpine Fund first worked with the Voenna Antonovka orphanage five years ago on its inaugural hike. The tradition of working together was continued for their first dacha trip this winter. Important to me, this marked the third separate group to attend the dacha.
In other words, the Alpine Fund is spreading its wings, and reaching out to a broader spectrum of kids. It is a delicate task to balance our goals of making genuine impacts and fostering relationships with kids, versus just serving as many as we possibly can. I personally believe we are currently striking that balance as well as we can.
It has been our goal to work with two orphanages, plus our English students, and we have accomplished that.
Trip 1
The weather, more than anything, threatened to frustrate the weekend, as rain poured down Friday night, following a week of Spring-like temperatures.
The group arrived on time at the dacha. Another wonderful lunch prepared by Arianna was had, followed by a quick turnaround, and out the door for our local peak – known now as Pik Alpine Fund. Fog rolled in and out, and snow blew sideways for the duration of the hike. There was no view, but the kids delighted in their first peak, and were remarkably upbeat and enthusiastic. It was a good start.
Things soured late in the evening, when our guest troublemaker (one of the more frustrated young boys), could not keep his insulting comments, meant for our ethnic Kyrgyz girls, to himself. Some tactful intervention and conflict resolution had us sleeping again, but not before some bad feelings set in amongst the group. This incident proved a bit of a turning point in the weekend. The mood was dampened for sure.
Trip 2
The "English class boys" joined us on the most recent trip. After the previous trips with large groups, planning and prepping for these guys was a piece of cake. They are extremely helpful and attentive. They enjoy themselves and genuinely take something positive away from their time in the mountains.
We hiked Pik Alpine Fund (the first time for this group) and added a round of Frisbee on the summit for kicks. Besides Frisbee, we enjoyed sweets, local bread and tea while soaking up the sun and excellent views.
The following day was augmented by a visit form a local naturalist who works for a snow leopard trust. His great demeanor, excellent photos (of snow leopards!), and enthusiasm for the subject made for a fun few hours. He joined us on a shorter hike up a local creek bed and we looked for some interesting animal tracks. Things ended well and we headed home in good spirits.
Conclusions
The hardest part is behind us in many ways. Regular trips are up and running with largely positive results. The trouble presented the other week amongst our group from Antonovka is not out of the ordinary. In many ways, I'm surprised there are not more problems. Instead, the kids have been thankful, upbeat, and pretty well self-motivated.
The challenge in the future will be to continue funding our operations, and keeping up the enthusiasm amongst volunteers and staff for continued trips.
Matt Klick
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