Members of Atlanta High School’s Sources of Strength group attended a retreat held at Camp Tyler in Whitehouse, Texas. Peer and adult leaders were put into groups with students from other districts and participated in a rotation of six activities, including teambuilding strategies, yoga, rock painting, small-group sharing, games and gaga ball, which was a crowd favorite.
Students representing Atlanta High School included Keele Youngblood, Lucy Ransom, Ian Bard, Ashton Holderbaugh, Aniyah Hill, Emma Sanford, Brooklyn Sullivan, Madelyn Stanley and Jasmine Cook. Adult leaders were Stevi Stanley and Whitney Adams.
“I am proud of all of our students that attended for their willingness to participate and fully embrace the retreat,” Adams said. “There were a few kiddos from AHS in my group, so it was awesome to see their personalities come out during this retreat and really get to know them better.”
The team-building activities required the groups to work together and think outside the box.
“The activities reinforced the concept that when presented with a problem, there are more ways than one to solve it,” Adams said. “It’s typically easier when you have at least one other person to support you through the problem, and sometimes the easiest answer comes when you quit trying to think so hard.”
At first, students were a little nervous about interacting with others in their groups.
“Yoga was the first activity I participated in, so the breathing really made my nerves go away,” Holderbaugh said. “Once we got to the next activity, I was ready to open up and start getting to know others in my group.”
Sources of Strength is a program to prevent suicide, violence, bullying and substance abuse by increasing well-being, help-seeking, resiliency, healthy coping and belonging.
“I enjoyed getting to know other people from other schools,” Youngblood said. “It really made me think about how the [Sources of Strength] wheel has impacted my life.”
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