Leadership – Asheville TAASC

TAASC Covid-19 Protocol

August 1, 2021 By Greg Gillett 1 Comment

May 2022 Covid-19 Protocols

During these odd times, TAASC must mandate protocols to keep both students and their families safe. There is an inherent risk in all activities, and that risk is significantly heightened during this pandemic. We are mitigating these risks through the policies below. We believe that these few risks are worth taking to provide a vibrant educational environment for our students. As a program; we will be following all State and Federal mandates concerning Covid-19.

TAASC meetings and trips will not require masks unless the group is indoors. Please always bring a mask to TAASC incase this happens.
We expect full transparency from our community about symptoms, exposure, and testing results.
Students who are sick must not attend any TAASC Events.
Students who have significant exposure to Covid-19 (prolonged proximity to a suspected or positive case) will stay home for 5 days.
If our program experiences an outbreak, TAASC events will be suspended for a minimum of 5 days.
TAASC Bus travel requires masks be worn + windows all open

Growing Together

May 24, 2017 By Greg Gillett 1 Comment

Transformation – the changing from the caterpillar to the butterfly – sounds so beautiful, and it is. But it is easy to skip over the middle part. The part when the caterpillar is inside the chrysalis completely dissolving itself and reforming. Yet it is not despite, but because of challenge, hardship, and a certain level of stress that we transform again and again.

As the school year comes to an end we find a natural marker of the time we have spent together as the community we call Girls Taasc. During this pilot year our group has learned and grown and changed, and changed again, responsive to the development of our group as a whole, but also responsive to each girl’s (and leader’s) unique individual growth as well.

So, next Thursday, we celebrate with our traditional end-of-year Taasc ice cream social. Can we transition to the summer season without this tradition of frenzied loading of toppings onto Asheville’s best – Ultimate Ice Cream? We think not. Those who come with dinner, be forewarned, children’s ice cream bowls have been known to be loaded not only with gummy bears, cookies, and all manner of sweet toppings – but also with unattended dinner items of those attempting to be healthy. Think chunks of chicken, hot dogs, potatoes taking their place of honor along with the candy. Truly – a free for all! Newcomers… be forewarned.

Who can blame them really, it’s feels great to cut loose after a season of fun and also hard work. And growing is hard work. Transformation – the changing from the caterpillar to the butterfly – sounds so beautiful, and it is. But it is easy to skip over the middle part. The part when the caterpillar is inside the chrysalis completely dissolving itself and reforming. Yet it is not despite, but because of challenge, hardship, and a certain level of stress that we transform again and again.

In Taasc, we the adult guides, are lucky. Lucky to witness, behold, hold space for and design ways to allow kids to find out where their edges are. To step beyond these edges, and find themselves flying, to look out at the children as they wave back to us, saying, here I am! I did this! I have this in me!

Moments of suffering — we call it Type 2 fun — are not fun in the moment, but are deeply fulfilling afterward. Type 1 fun – loading a million toppings on a giant bowl of ice cream – yes we are all for it. Type 2 fun – lugging a heavy backpack up a seemingly never ending gravel road, throwing yourself on the ground so you are collapsed like an upside down turtle, tears, complaints, getting back up, hiking on. Getting in sight of the bus, having a grown up offer to carry your pack the rest of the way, saying “No, I got this.” Making it to the bus.

Type 2 fun. You get it. You feel awesome afterwards. It lasts. It transforms you.

The end of year overnight with families is a sacred time in many ways, an experience of girls being in relationship with their families from the perspective of the growth they’ve earned over the course of their year.

What forms of growth do I see? … independence in camp skills, willingness to “go for it” with that first lunge into the cold river, working together as a fully contributing group member during camp break down, standing in front a group to find authentic voice in sharing stories about life, adventures, what is meaningful to you.

This kind of growth happens individually, as part of our inner world, but it happens together. Together in this supportive, loving, and daring community we call Girls Taasc. Girls Taasc, a place filled with strong girls climbing mountains, swimming in rivers and scaling cliffs. A place where kayaking unicorns paddle rainbow rivers carrying pandas on their backs.

So, at the ice cream social we celebrate, we celebrate the place where each girl is on her transformation journey. In recognition we present her with her Taasc shirt – never for sale, always earned.

By Lucy MacGregor

Girls TAASC News!

February 24, 2017 By Greg Gillett Leave a Comment

Our Girls TAASC group has had some fun and informative sessions since the start of the New Year.

(By Becky Kluge)

In a recent meeting the older girls learned about the signs and symptoms of hypothermia and how to treat it. Their favorite parts were learning about the “umbles” and then making a human burrito using camping gear and personal layers.

The younger girls learned about a proper hygienic practice for Leave No Trace “pooping in the woods”. Ask them to tell you how!

One chilly Thursday afternoon we combined groups and made a heat tent with a large tarp where we all huddled underneath on comfy pads. We talked about the meaning of an expedition with Becky telling her story of a 70 day, 850 mile river trip she did in the tundra of the Northwest Territories. The girls offered stories of their family expeditions, as well.

Last week our combined group focused on working together to communicate and problem-solve multiple versions of The Maze. The girls had a blast working their way through this initiative, from one side to the other, finding different ways to communicate when their speech was “taken away”. Strong team work unfolded.

Sophia Cross, Asheville High senior and long standing member of TAASC, has attended nearly all sessions, bringing her expertise, fine role modeling, and enthusiasm for girls and the program. All of the girls love her and so do the staff! She is an excellent example of how this program so positively informs and creates a confident, strong leader with amazing outdoor skills. We are so fortunate to have her with us!

We are looking forward to the March 4th day-trip to Worley’s Cave with the younger girls, although any age girl and her parent(s) are welcome to join us. If you haven’t already signed up, please do so HERE.

We will be sending out a packing list of what they should wear and bring to be prepared during and after the cave exploration. This guarantees to be a muddy and fun trip!

Looking forward to more adventures with these awesome girls!

Exploring Female Leadership

January 10, 2017 By Greg Gillett Leave a Comment

This week our six and seven year old Taasc girls embraced the dark as we turned our attention toward our upcoming day trip to go caving! These girls have already been building trust with one another at meetings. It wasn’t that long ago that each girl was leading her blindfolded partner on a trust walk in the woods, and then they took it to the next level as they back up belayed each other at the climbing gym.

During cave exploration each girl will not only be taking responsibility for herself, but will support the group through her leadership.

In Girls Taasc we explore the many faces of leadership. Leadership looks different for each unique girl, and we honor each individual expression.

On our climbing trip, the girls began to explore four expressions of leadership through the window of Angeles Arrien’s Four Fold Way. We began to learn about the way of the warrior – showing up and being present, the way of the healer – expressing care, appreciation, and gratitude, the way of the teacher – sharing what you know, and the way of the visionary – telling the truth about what you see without blame and judgment.

The girls made some pretty cool pictures of how they are warriors, healers, teachers, and visionaries.

As you might guess, there are lots of opportunities to work with themes of courage, support, and adventure as we move into our caving theme. And there are lots of opportunities for straight up fun, too. Last week the girls transformed into bats and pups (baby bats), with blindfolded mama bats locating their babies through sound and scent.

Mini Girls Taasc is so awesome! Am I ever lucky to spend my Thursday afternoons with this group!

By Lucy MacGregor

Why Learning Advanced Skills is Important

August 22, 2016 By Greg Gillett Leave a Comment

Our students get to learn advanced skills in all the outdoor activities we do. In rock climbing, TAASC students learn the basic skills like knots, harnesses, belaying and climbing techniques. These are required for a safe day on the rock, but there is so much more to learn about climbing, which we teach.

Our students learn how to build a climbing anchor so that it is both super safe and redundant. Doing this develops judgement and an ability to think things through. These are key skills that can be applied in other areas of life. They help connect detailed focus with overall big picture thinking and even more importantly help foster a real feeling of responsibility.

TAASC is able to do pull this off due the experience of our staff working for programs like Outward Bound, as well as their personal experience with these activities. Learning more advanced things makes it so much more fun and interesting for our students and inspires them to really get into it more. This could even influence a person’s career choice – I know of people who have been so interested in learning wilderness first aid that they eventually went to medical school!

Other examples of advanced skills we teach are: technical rescue skills; advanced wilderness first aid skills; paddling whitewater; navigational skills and many other outdoor tricks of the trade. Overall from a personal development standpoint I believe exposing younger students to these skills helps develop their judgement skills by adding a new layer of responsibility and reliability. All these qualities are going to help make a difference in a students life as they transition into adulthood.

Urban Adventure

August 12, 2015 By Greg Gillett Leave a Comment

This summer we did something completely different and went Urban for a few days. The funny thing was that we were as uncomfortable and out of our ‘zone’ in this setting as regular city folk are when the go into the wilderness. So although we took some strain with navigating our way through this environment, it still had the same adventure elements that we so love to experience.

For this trip we got to explore around Washington D.C which is such an interesting and crazy city to visit. We stayed at a campground within subway striking distance from downtown. Usually when we start a wilderness expedition the team knows what they need and how to make it all happen – from navigation to getting water and simple things like using the woods if you need to go. But in the city this all changed. Suddenly we got stressed out trying to figure out buying subway tokens or passes and where to get on or off and which line do we take. On our first time in we actually lost 2 team mates who didn’t get off the train in time. So wow – they just disappeared into the darkness of the train tunnel and were gone! We reconnected thanks to the marvel of technology and our phones became a major tool for figuring out this entire environment. We could navigate with them, find each other with them, find places we needed to go, get information about anything we were looking at, and the list goes on. Smart phones are way more useful in the city!

Highlights of our expedition were:

A tour of the Capitol Building – very impressive with so much to see and do, plus the air conditioning was worth the entire visit as was their restaurant!
Getting to see the White House – for some of us this was our first time seeing this famous house and it’s always exciting to be right there.
Exploring the many world class museums and monuments of DC
Getting a feel for our nations capitol city and what it’s like to be there.

Travelling with a group of teenagers is also super interesting and I wanted to include a list of the best ‘Travel Hacks’ I discovered travelling with this lot:

Using Uber taxis to get around downtown and between sights
Travelling ultra-light in the city (no backpacks or extra gear) and using Starbucks for free ice-water and a/c (again)
Using google maps to navigate the city as a pedestrian – it’s a game changer and so fun. We found the app even zooms into museums and then you can navigate their too on your phone.
Using Barnes and Noble bookstores to get out of the rain and simultaneously re-charge your smart phone.

Meetings in a Tree?

August 12, 2015 By Greg Gillett Leave a Comment

Our weekly meetings are all about getting kids up and at it – ACTION! There really is no better way to learn than to do and at TAASC meetings we get real with some exciting activities. The goal is to introduce students to new skills and experiences in a gentle, non-intimidating way. This way students get that initial experience under their belt and by the time we get out on a weekend adventure trip, they’re ready. They know how to do most of the things they need to do to stay warm, dry and comfortable.

Some students take longer than others to get comfortable with something like climbing or being up high. Meetings are a perfect environment for that student to baby-step their way towards confidence with that activity. We teach kids how to prussik up a fixed line and once they get the hang of it – they get to decide how high and far they want to go. It’s a great activity to develop individual skills, confidence and empowerment. And at the same time they’re doing something totally cool and exhilarating going 40 ft up into a tree!