2010.08.06 00:00:00 |
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Odd Squad members Al Arsenault, Chris Graham, Norm Torp, and longtime Odd Squad volunteer Jenna Graham are traveling to Tanzania, Africa to tackle the mountainous task of promoting a healthy and drug-free lifestyle to youth everywhere.
The decision to attempt to summit Kilimanjaro was an easy one for all involved. In keeping with the Odd Squad mantra, to educate youth about making positive lifestyle choices, the expedition will be documented on film to be used in a variety of mentoring and outreach programs. An ambitious team has been assembled, led by Al, whose most recent film project "Tears for April" has won several film industry awards. Al initially developed the Kilimanjaro project based on his lifelong desire to challenge the limits of his own personal potential and a desire to share his experiences so others can learn.
It was not a hard sell for Chris, who is also a veteran of a variety of wilderness expeditions, and is heavily involved in developing drug prevention and mentoring programs with several sports organizations throughout Western Canada. Leading by example is one of the best ways to educate regarding positive choices and reaching ones true potential in life. The athletes that Chris works with do an excellent job of projecting that message to impressionable youth.
Never one to pass up an opportunity to expand his horizons, Norm, much like Al and Chris, has a variety of wilderness adventures under his belt. He has made a career in film and video production and has directed cinematography for numerous Odd Squad productions over the past decade. Norm's technical expertise is essential to capture and share this adventure with others.
Jenna rounds out the production team. As a youth that has seen the squalid lives of the addicts that consume the Downtown Eastside through her work with the Odd Squad, Jenna was offered the opportunity to lend her perspective to this documentary. She is currently attending the University of Victoria in a Social Sciences program. She is an experienced traveler, who among other things, has canoed in Ontario with Outward Bound, bungee-jumped and zip-trekked at Whistler, skydived in New Zealand, scuba dived in Mexico and toured several European countries. She is an avid photographer with an interest in criminal law and has assisted in multiple Odd Squad productions over the past several years.
Follow their progress on the Odd Squad facebook page (
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7206731149) as they trek up the highest freestanding mountain in the world, to 19,344 feet. Enjoy the pictures and preview the film clips detailing the trials and tribulations of these Odd Squadders as they wend their way up the slopes of this majestic dormant volcano to a place where the oxygen level is half what it is at sea level, before returning to the Ngorongoro Crater below to roam among the herds of wild beasts and predators.
After a weeklong trek, the team will make the summit of Uhuru Peak on August 18, 2010. This is provided they don’t get a dreaded case of the potentially lethal, acute mountain sickness. This frozen, Arctic-like wasteland has never been the destination of any active drug addict. For no matter what reasons adventurers are compelled to leave the comfort and safety of their own homes, other than to test their mental and physical prowess, this adventure is sure to scream “I am alive! I did it!” when the summit is hopefully achieved.
Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro is a healthy metaphor for the attainment of human physical achievement that is within reach of the average, semi-fit, and motivated human being. This natural high has absolutely nothing for the addict who lives within a vacuous and poisoned shell- a personally cold and empty wasteland poignantly portrayed in the following poem:
Dreams
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field ?
Frozen with snow.
~ James Langston Hughes (1902-1967)
Why do we make the assertion that no active drug addict has ever set foot on this glorious peak? No drug addict could see themselves drug free for the length of time required to make this trip nor do they possess the will to do so without adequate treatment. Most people with addictions cannot make the financial commitment to embark on such a journey and are more likely to concentrate on the unrelenting desire to consume more drugs. An addict may have the ability to dream about making such a trip, but the presence of the chemical ball and chain around their ankle holds them within the grasp of their drug of choice. The unhealthy condition of most addicts would limit their ability to endure this grueling trek even if their withdrawal symptoms were to abate quickly. Not only do drugs destroy lives, health, families and societies, but also the very fabric of dreams and the attainment of peak human potential.
Come along with the Odd Squad on a natural high, far beyond the furthest reaches of crack and marijuana and other dangerous substances, all the way to the roof of Africa. Harmful drugs will never get you this high.
