2007Fall Newsletter

The picture of smiling teens working together to better the community was seen through out Watauga County this fall from Elk Knob to the Humane Society. Mountain Alliance has always provided op-portunities for youth to engage in service. Last year students contributed over 1700 hours of service to the community. During one unique service project this fall, students worked to restore a historic ESSO service station in the Western part of Watauga County. Youth met local residents that shared stories of the Brown Garage and worked along side Cove Creek residents to help restore this historic structure. Through this project youth began to see their efforts pay off as each visit brought the building a little closer to its original state. Service oppor-tunities offered by Mountain Alliance provide youtha chance to grow in compassion, understanding and awareness.

Youth In Service

Mountain Alliance has always prided itself on two things: providing exciting and engaging programming to teenage youth free of charge, and creating an atmosphere of acceptance at Watauga High School, so that every student feels welcomed, respected and accepted for who they are. Recent figures for the Mountain Alli-ance Leadership Development Program show a positive trend in both number of programs offered to youth out-side of school and the number of youth participating in service and adventure programming.

This fall Mountain Alliance offered over fifty pro-grams after school and on weekends accounting for 617 participant program days. This is the high-est number ever and represents a wonderful de-velopment in Watauga County. Youth increas-ingly need positive opportunities outside of school to engage in. This increase means more youth are learning to work together, communi-cate and believe in themselves. One hundred and fifty-six youth have participated in one activity, ninety four of which are “active” participants. These are important and significant numbers that help to demonstrate the work Mountain Alliance is engaged in here in our community.

Increased Programming…Serving and Saving Youth in Watauga County

Jessica “Flare” Ammerman is a freshman at Watauga High Jessica “Flare” Ammerman is a freshman at Watauga High School this year and has jumped right into the Mountain Al-liance program, taking full advantage of everything that it has to offer. Flare joined Mountain Alliance as a way to become active in her own life. Participating in a variety of trips from service to adventure, she has been able to experi-ence the surrounding community, environment, and has become involved in the social community of Mountain Alli-ance as well.

Flare stated that “I never had a social life until Mountain Al-liance”. Flare now enjoys putting herself out there to meet new people on trips. Participating in many of the trips the program offers has allowed Flare the opportunity to form new friendships with her peers, many of whom she might not have met had she not become involved.

One of her most memorable trips this year was the over-night backpacking and rock climbing trip. This outing pushed Flare beyond her own perceived limits: “You find you can do things you would never do before. I thought after hiking up and down the mountain that I would never be able to climb a rock after that. But I did and it’s just what you do”. She always has a good time, and every person she meets “has been really cool”. been really cool”.

According to Flare, the staff who work with Mountain Alli-ance have proven to be invaluable to the dynamic of the program. Talking with them, she finds herself completely at ease. During membership meetings, “I always wonder what kind of silly name game they are going to make us do this time. You never know what to expect”. She loves the cre-ativity in the games and the enthusiasm that the staff brings to each meeting.

A Freshman’s Story

Mountain Alliance is a High Country United Way Agency

www.mountainalliance.org263-0383

Rolling Academy 2007

Alternative Spring Break Pass Christian, MS

This spring Mountain Alliance will once again offer after school and weekend programming serving a growing population of youth possessing confidence, community awareness and concern for the natural world. Spring also means the return of our week long alternative spring break trips and Washing-ton, D.C urban expedition. Last year was the second year in a row that we traveled to the gulf coast to year in a row that we traveled to the gulf coast to help with the rebuilding effort following hurricane Katrina.

The Rolling Academy is an advanced leadership academy using a bus as classroom, base camp, and vehicle for service and adventure challenges in-tended to grow ten selected students into leaders. The 2007 Rolling Academy traveled over 2000 miles through nine states over eleven days. Appli-cations for this free summer expedition will be available in early January for youth in grades 9-11, at www.rollingacademy.org and Watauga High School. Sponsorships are still available for a busi-ness or individual to help support the community through investment in our youth. Please call Moun-tain Alliance to pledge your support.

Looking Ahead