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FAQ
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What is the idea behind the name "Survive and Thrive"?
We want young adults to not only survive their difficult illness or injury but to thrive during treatment/recovery and the rest of their lives. We believe this is possible while recognizing that it can be a very difficult and slow process.
What does Survive & Thrive Adventures hope to accomplish on their expeditions?
Severe illness or injury can have many debilitating short term and long term effects on young adults. These young adults have already survived a lot and we want to help them discover how to overcome any emotional or physical damage so that they can thrive in their new lives. Everyone faced with death makes some very important discoveries about themselves and the world that they live in. We believe the outdoor environment and adventure activities are the perfect medium to make the connection between these self-discoveries and everyday life.
What kinds of adventure activities and trips do you organize?
We will run any type of trip that involves outdoor adventure activities. This includes but is not limited to rock climbing, kayaking, rafting, surfing, challenge course, mountain biking, skiing, backpacking, snowshoeing, and winter camping. We contract out the facilitation of the various adventure activities (except for the rock climbing, snowshoeing and winter camping which is done in house) and therefore we are able to run trips anywhere in world to suit group needs.
Survive & Thrive Adventures Inc. operates year round depending on what type of trips are requested.
What types of groups do you work with?
Survive & Thrive Adventures will work with any kind of group as long as it is primarily made up of young adults (ages 15-39) who have experience a life threatening illness or injury. Although the current project is focusing on young adult cancer survivors and Mike Lang (Founder and Director or Survive & Thrive) is a young adult cancer survivor, we believe that expeditions of this nature would be beneficial to all young adults who have looked death in the face and gone through difficult treatments and surgeries.
To what extent, if any, is spiritual discussion and exploration a component of the trips?
All the trips will have some spiritual discussion. It commonly understood that you cannot adequately explore life threatening illness and injury without delving into the spiritual realm. Young Adults embrace spirituality much more than older generations and are not uncomfortable with talking about such things. All the guides and facilitators are all very sensitive to each person's boundaries and feelings when it come to spiritual discussions and all participants are told that there will be these discussions in advance of the trip.
It seems like the directors, themselves being young adults, presume to bear greater life lessons and transferable strategies than their young adult peers?
The Directors (Mike and Bonnie) do not feel that they have anymore experience or wisdom than their peers but are trained in facilitating conversation and discussion. Mike has a degree in Recreation and both Bonnie and Mike have taken many classes related to facilitation and group processing and have considerable field experience leading adventure trips and working on challenge courses with businessmen, teenagers, managers, sports teams etc. Ultimately, Mike and Bonnie want to use dynamic facilitation to help the participants discover unique lessons that are meaningful to them and not push on them fabricated lessons that have no relevance to their lives. As it always is with these trips, Bonnie and Mike expect to learn just as much if not more from their peers. Also, on most trips we like to bring along a professional facilitator with years experience working with survivors of the specific illness or injury.
How did you come up with the ages 15-39 as the young adult age range?
This age range was determined by the Lance Armstrong Young Adult Alliance to be young adults. This time frame covers the most formative years in a person?s life and although the issues being faced may change slightly between the oldest and youngest ages (for example adding children into the picture) all ages are making big decisions that will drastically effect their life direction, goals and values.
Does the Inc. at the end of your name mean that you are a corporation?
Yes, although Survive & Thrive will never be run like the traditional profit driven corporation, incorporation was necessary from a legal liability standpoint. The process to become a registered non-profit corporation was too lengthy for our timeframe. Eventually, Survive & Thrive Adventures will become a registered non-profit.
Our Mission
To help young adult survivors of severe illness or injury identify, process and apply life lessons through adventure activites.