Sharilee Griffiths, director, My Discovery Destination
Last summer, Cache Valley families enjoyed more than 150 free activities developed to help them create and capture memories. These “adventures” were intentionally designed to be meaningful and build leadership, organizational, and other key life skills youth need to succeed in school and life.
Everything we do at My Discovery Destination! is focused on strengthening families and building character. Local businesses and non-profit organizations join us as adventure sponsors and, together, we provide plenty of variety and fun to keep kids engaged and learning throughout the summer break. Each adventure has four different levels of participation: pre-K, basic, super achiever, and teen. Some adventures happen at a specific time and place; others happen out and about on a flexible schedule, and still others are completely home-based and a perfect solution for those moments when kids declare, “I’m bored!” The program provides a great opportunity for kids to “try out” a wide variety of free classes, such as dance, yoga, karate, and cooking in addition to learning skills not available anywhere else, like basket weaving, flower arranging, and massage.
Preparations for the Summer 2018 session are in full swing. Many of our awesome adventure sponsors from last year are back! You will also see plenty of new faces that have joined us throughout the school year. My Discovery Destination! is now a year-round program; but right now, it’s all about summer! Passports will be available online and kids will collect a different “Wattson Stamp” for each adventure they complete.
This year, our theme is #UseTech4Good. Collaborating with Epik Deliberate Digital, a non-profit organization based in Utah, we are balancing the conversation about technology. We will continue to teach families the importance of protecting their homes and themselves against the dangers technology can pose, such as pornography, viruses, and cyber bullying. However, we want to also encourage youth and families to look around them for how technology has impacted our communities in positive ways. Technology is not going away, so it is important to strengthen families and build character by encouraging people to be aware of the good it can do and think of ways that they can contribute to quality, uplifting uses of the technology available and #UseTech4Good. With each adventure kids complete, they will also identify how technology has had an impact on that industry. We have some incredible opportunities in the works for participants in the #UseTech4Good component of the program.
We are still accepting applications for adventure sponsors to join us. If you know of a business that also believes in “strengthening families and building character” and you would like to see them participate in our program, tell them about us!
Registration for families for the Summer 2018 session starts soon. Meanwhile, join the My Discovery Destination! Cache Valley Facebook group and check out MyDiscoveryDestination.com for more information. We look forward to having you join us for the Summer 2018 session!
