Discussion: Kids AR/Orienteering curriculum, events

It seems like it would be worthwhile to gather what’s going on with AR and orienteering related to kids – curriculum, races, training. Has that been done recently? I’m new to the site. I’ve learned about programs in Michigan, Indiana and Southern Ontario just in the past few months, listed below (a lot of you know about ARK but I just met Mike). I also saw this past thread: http://www.attackpoint.org/discussionthread.jsp/me.... Please add to this if anything comes to mind (not necessarily the categories below, but a brief description and link would be helpful).

Education+Experience
What/Where: Curriculum + Adventure Day, Willow Ridge Elementary School, Brighton, Michigan
Who: 90 6th grade students, 50 adult leaders and support staff, 8-10 hours classroom
Organization: Get Your Bearings (Michelle and Cooper Green, with help from many others)
Learn more/Video: http://www.mibackyard.org/educational-outreach.htm...
Contact: Michelle Green, greenmichelle@outlook.com

What/Where: Adventure Running Kids (ARK), Golden Horseshoe region, Ontario
Who: adventure running program open for boys and girls aged 6-14 and youth programs, 7 locations, spring and fall, summer camp
Organization: DontGetLost Adventure Running
Learn more: http://dontgetlost.ca/index.php/ark-locations/ark-...
Contact: Mike Waddington, jm.waddington@gmail.com or http://dontgetlost.ca/index.php/news-a-info/dontge...

What/Where: School-based AR/orienteering program, Syracuse, Indiana
Who: middle school students
Organization: Wilford Middle School
Learn more: website under development
Contact: Amy Evans, aevans@wawasee.k12.in.us

Experience/Race
What/Where: Gazelle Sports Kids Adventure Challenge, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Who: 500+ kids and family members, 2 hours, map-based, at city zoo and park
Organization: Designed by Michigan Adventure Racing, put on by Gazelle Sports (running specialty store)
Learn more: https://www.gazellesports.com/info/250-KAC.html, https://www.flickr.com/photos/gazellesports/sets/7...
Contact: Mark VanTongeren, mark@miadventureracing.com

Michelle Green developed a curriculum and an AR for kids. I am emailing her this post. She may be able to chime in on her research.

the Colorado gang is killing it. http://kidsadventuregames.com/about/

Adventure Running Kids was started to be a grass roots kids participation program for the sports of trail running, adventure racing and adventure running/orienteering. We started it based around the Jack Rabbitts XC skiing program here in Canada. It has now grown to include an advanced kids level called ARK Attack (kids 10-14) and a teenager racing/participation program called Adventure Running X, ARX. We anticipate we will develop an advanced ARX program within a year or two that essentially becomes a 'rep' racing team.

Many of the coaches of ARK in our seven different southern Ontario communities are adventure racers. Others are top trail runners and adventure runners/orienteers.

To complement the program we have added kids races in a series. That may grow in 2015. A lot of our kids are interested in adventure racing. that is not surprising because we expose kids to this early through the coaches and athlete presentations.
We deliberately treat AR and O as one and I personally think more should be done in that area as per Mark VT's other post (but that is another thread of discussion). Since our kids learn to nav at an early age they feel confident in the outdoors. SInce the kids participate mostly as teams they develop good problem solving and team dynamics skills at an early age. These are skills needed to even consider racing AR or O.

We are slowly starting to see growth in junior numbers at our DontGetLost Adventure Running series and this December have included free entry in our Icebreaker Adventure Run for ALL 750+ ARK participants. We don't anticipate all will race but if they do.... ;-) Unfortunately at this time it is not possible for teenagers to do AR together (without an adult) in southern Ontario. While 'family' teams of a parent and child under 13 are growing the lack of teenagers at ARs is a concern. There may be liability insurance reasons for that but there was a previous highschool AR race here in Ontario. It would be great to see it return in some form. We also host a schools adventure running race that attracts over 1000 kids. We have also had infromal discussions of adding a school AR to our hosting schedule since many of the kids that do our schools adventure run also race in a schools triathlon a few weeks later.

The contact info for Adventure Running Kids listed above should be: Dana Ferguson info at dontgetlost dot ca (we have two full time employees and will be adding a third in early 2015).

I used to volunteer at the high school adventure race Hammer mentioned above. It was held the day after an adult AR so there was a good pool of potential volunteers for the pre-race training sessions and on race day, and there were cost savings from sharing equipment and venue between the two events. There was also an external event partner - a college - that oversaw the event, did the promotion and handled registration - probably put in some money too.

I believe it stopped a few years ago because they couldn't find an event director / course designer, not because the college's interest faded.

The high school race course was *very* different from the adult course in the same area - much easier, very little bushwhacking, adult volunteers wandering the woods in areas where kids might go astray. Thus it was quite resource intensive. Even with all the caution, some kids managed to get a long way from where they should have been, which caused much chagrin. They were a little more likely to get injured too.

The top teams were truly talented but I don't think I'd want the responsibility of designing a safe wilderness course for teenagers because their decision making and emergency handling skills are more variable than those of adults. (I turned down the opportunity to be event director in the year it folded.)

A southern Ontario race, in a populated area where it's hard to get lost for days, would be easier to manage. However, I doubt it would be possible for an RD to make money on it, given that parents believe kids' entry fees should be lower than adult entry fees even though their costs might be the same or higher. So an external funder would likely need to be in the picture.

I really enjoyed my volunteer involvement with the high school AR. It was wonderful to see the sense of accomplishment as they crossed the finish line covered in mud - and hear the laughs and stories even if they stopped early. To make it happen again would need to be a labour of love on someone's part, probably with the aid of some kind of grant money.

Almost forgot... the original coach of some of our top high school AR teams eventually gave up trying to get his high school to approve participation in the event. School officials were too freaked out by the idea of AR and he had to go through a mountain of paperwork. I think he just put up posters about the event so kids could enter themselves if they wanted. He would volunteer at the event but he couldn't officially coach them anymore. So if the event were to take place again, it would help to have someone involved who understands the intricacies of school boards and liability.

Further to Bash's points...

Yes a schools-based AR would ideally be in an area bounded by roads and have a short winning time. There are several areas that would work nicely in southern Ontario. Bash's points above speak to another reason why AR and O need to work closer together than they do even though most (all?) of the traditionalists in each sport would probably have nothing of it.

While a RD might not find hosting races for juniors because of financial reasons there are numerous people that would make this a 'labour of love'. I, for example, have been race director for over 20 races and haven't made a penny off of it. Money isn't why I organize races. So if a race director were to partner with other individuals to break down the barriers for juniors in AR then that is probably a good thing for the sport.

We were told once there wasn't money in kids adventure running/orienteering yet we now support multiple full-time salaries.

The Colorado set-up with courses designed as clover leafs seems perfect. All disciplines need not have navigtion (or tough navigation)

Few of the "AR traditionalists" in Ontario are in the sport anymore. The two major Ontario adventure race directors both work closely with orienteering clubs or Orienteering Ontario. A number of adventure racers volunteer with ARK. I would agree, however, that many of the O traditionalists have little interest in AR. I can't fault them for it. In the same way that I'm not interested in obstacle racing because it's a different sport, I can see why some traditional orienteers wouldn't get excited about volunteering their time for multisport events. But there is a large overlap between the communities here, to the point where many people just think of "adventure sports" in general. We are very lucky in Ontario.

Agreed, if there is someone who will manage a new high school AR as a labour of love, it will likely be a volunteer with a day job that pays the bills - probably a parent.

Yup southern Ontario is lucky in that there is no real difference in the communities. Which probably means more can be done to do benefit the 'adventure sports' as a whole. My comment about traditionalists was an overall comment abut the sports in general.

One of barriers to AR and O is navigation. We have a program that is developing youth nav skills. Those kids and families are looking to race. There currently isn't much out there. But five years ago there wasn't ARK and look what we did. :-)

There is an opportunity out there.

So, the program ran through the local O club? We are exploring things here...and looking for ways to manage the grant funding.

W4j, if you were asking about the Adventure Running Kids program Hammer mentioned, yes, it's run through Dontgetlost Adventure Running, formerly known as Golden Horseshoe Orienteering.
http://dontgetlost.ca/index.php/ark-home

@El C, that is cool. As a quick summary, it's a series of 7 races held at ski resorts in summer. It's for kids ages 6-14 in teams of two, paying $150/team. They have kid-friendly maps and travel on foot, by bike and on water, using a cloverleaf pattern as suggested by Hammer above. There are obstacles and challenges set up along the course so it's a hybrid adventure event. It looks like they aim for a finish time of 1-2 hours. Based on the results lists, they're getting a decent turn-out, on par with adult adventure races.

If people are willing to pay $75 for their kid to run around for 90 minutes, it could be affordable for a professional organizer who has a friendly insurance company. In our market, I'm not sure that entry fee would fly though.

Talk to Billy Mattison! I'm sure he would offer some insight, especially for people in the Northeast.

That Kids Adventure Games looks amazing! Hammer and Bash wouldn't Kelso be the perfect place for something similar? Kelso is big enough to make it somewhat challenging but small enough not to get lost. There must be an O map of that area. You can do a bike, trail run and paddle. Throw some obscure, fun obstacles in there.
More importantly, the location - you can pull kids from all over the GTA.
I'd definitely be prepared, with some partners, to invest time and money in building something like that.

Kelso would work well. Given that STORM already does Storm the 'Scarpment there, if you wanted to be the event organizer, maybe you could try to contract him for some of the implementation.

Good insights. One other model that might work is to have a local running or outdoor gear store put on the race for long-term brand building/customer development. In Grand Rapids, MI, Gazelle Sports, a very large but local running specialty store puts on a 2-hour Kids Adventure Challenge at the local zoo and attached park. We (Michigan Adventure Racing) created the framework for the race (map, passport, challenges, loan them controls) back in 2012 - trading them for sponsorship of some of our races - and they have done everything since.

The race has a $10 entry fee each for kids 5-12 years and their family members. One adult is required to run/walk alongside kids for safety but the kids do most of the map reading. Each year has a different theme (animals, pirates, sports) and kids do "Minute to Win It" and Amazing Race-style challenges. Nothing elaborate. It draws over 500 participants. Not meant to be a big money maker and Gazelle donates all the profits to a local charity anyway. It's about getting kids healthy and of course into Gazelle's 3 stores in West MI to buy running and soccer shoes and gear. And Michigan Adventure Racing benefits from the exposure these kids get to AR with a small investment of time back in 2012 and just volunteering and loaning out controls each year going forward. https://www.gazellesports.com/info/250-KAC.html