The Road Less Traveled is a Chicago based organization that brings youth from across the country to places around the world to gain adventuring experience and perform community service. They want to “facilitate life-changing experiences that foster personal growth in those who travel with us” according to their website.
This past week, a group made the trip to Haines as part of that mission. Five kids, led by trip leaders Logan Spinelli, Ruby Johnson and Mika Mansfield, spent four days kayaking and camping before volunteering at the Haines Friends of Recycling annual scrap metal recycling days. Spinelli says that learning about a community is part of the adventure.
“Something that is really cool about the road less traveled and the way we like to do our community service is we like to be very hands on with the community and ask them what they need, instead of coming in and putting things in that we think should be there. We’d like to say, hey, we have some hands, we have volunteers who are willing to help out. What do you guys need, and helping out here was something that was asked. So we’re just lending a hand where we can.”
Operating since 1991, the organization takes 6th-12th graders to locations spanning five continents. That includes the chance to spend three weeks in Alaska learning local ways and doing community service. Spinelli says the most rewarding aspect of this work is seeing how close-knit communities like Haines work together.
“Alaska is a really cool spot to get to do both of those things. Because it’s such a close knit community here in Haines, there seemed like a lot of opportunities for getting involved with like people directly instead of with large corporations or large organizations, since it seems like it’s a very, like everyone knows each other. Everyone likes to work together. And I’ve seen that. And I think that has been really cool to be a part of. And there’s so much beautiful outdoors stuff to utilize here, too. So it’s been really cool to get to see that really community oriented attitude here and I’ve feel really grateful to get to be a part of that.”
Friends of Recycling board member Melissa Aronson was grateful for the extra hands on what she described as a successful scrap metal recycling day. The group will continue their adventure and service work through Alaska until July 11th.
