“Trust me,” implored 12-year-old Nick Carmen, his arm outstretched to grab hold of a teammate who was preparing to venture out onto a cable suspended more than a foot off the ground, with only a rope to hold onto.
“Come on,” said Nick, “we can do it this time.”
Carmen and eight 6th-grade classmates, members of Grayslake Middle School’s Warrior Club, spent a cold, gray Saturday morning swinging from ropes, then climbing and balancing on logs as part of the group’s adventure training at Camp Henry Horner near Ingleside.
The ropes course is designed to teach teamwork, trust, communication and cooperation skills. It took nearly two hours for the boys to figure out the best way to get everyone around the course.
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Warrior Club members have been working on teamwork and trust all year. The 10 boys meet every Thursday afternoon and some weekends, learning such skills as martial arts, first aid, boxing and how to get along.
They are selected for the club, which is funded by grants and contributions, based on the recommendations of teachers and social workers who believe the club can make a difference in the boys’ lives.
Teacher Barry Gold founded the program in 1994 to help middle school-aged boys develop self-respect, concern for others and a sense of responsibility to the community.
A military veteran who has held onto the idealism of the 1960s, Gold designed the club to operate as a mini-Outward Bound program, using physical challenges to help students improve their self-confidence.
At the same time, Gold and his assistant, Marc Smith, provide the boys with strong male role models.
“Too many of our students lack a positive male role model in their lives and by the age of 11 or 12 already have negative opinions of police, teachers or any authority figures,” Gold said.
“This program has given them the opportunity to interact with these authority figures in a non-threatening environment and, hopefully, change the misconceptions that they may hold.”
The boys are proud to be Warriors. Asked to stand together for a group photo, they were eager to remove their coats so they could show off their T-shirts, which are decorated with a logo that contains the words Obligation, Justice, Courage and Honor.
“Obligation means they owe something to someone other than themselves, their community or family; justice means the difference between right and wrong; courage is doing what is right,” said Gold. “Honor,” he said, “is made up of those three things.”
It’s like a tripod, he tells the boys, “you pull one of the legs out (obligation, justice or courage) and the whole thing collapses.”
Gold and Smith try to keep in touch with the boys throughout the week.
“We’ll see them in the halls and give them a pat on the back or ask `How’s your homework going?,’ ” said Gold, a Golden Apple award-winning teacher.
The program tries to give boys the self-confidence to face up to whatever difficulties life may present to them and the opportunity to feel the pride that comes from facing and overcoming obstacles on their own, he said.
“These are a bunch of good kids,” Gold said. “Sometimes they just don’t get dealt the right cards.”