This winter, the School-based Program at the Aspen Middle School has had an opportunity to get creative for all the students to see! Three of our Buddy Pairs have created individual murals on the wall of the Counselor's room. Through this process, the Pairs have designed

Brady and Josue S. having fun!

their space and painted it with fantastic and inspiring colors and images. Little Buddy, Josue S., says his favorite part of this project is "having my Big Buddy to do it with!" Josue and Brady chose the theme of "respect the environment" for their mural. They said that they really enjoyed drawing each other's faces in the mural! Not only has this activity allowed our School-based Pairs to exercise their creative talents and get messy with paint, but it has helped them dive deeper into their mentoring relationship by creating and inventing something TOGETHER that will be displayed for a long time.

From March 28^th - April 2^nd, over fifteen of our local youth will embark on the Odyssey and Expedition Hut Trips - an exciting and integral part of our Experiential Group Mentoring Program. This is a physically and emotionally intense backcountry program designed to address the needs of high-risk teens who struggle to cope in the home, community and academic settings. Before the trips, participants, ages 12-17, take part in four Life Skills sessions to learn communication strategies, positive decision-making skills, teamwork, and conflict management, and set realistic and achievable goals for themselves. While on this journey of self-discovery, participants will be encouraged to carefully identify their emotional and physical strengths and challenges. Having broken down emotional, social, and psychological barriers, the groups will then snowshoe to the McNamara Hut.  Participants are encouraged to dig deep, step far outside their comfort zone, and persevere as they hike over 2,000 vertical feet, covering 6 miles, where they will spend two nights. The remote location of the hut provides these youth with the opportunity to reveal their personal challenges and struggles within a supportive environment and learn tools to overcome them.  In addition, they will learn basic orienteering skills (e.g., map-reading, GPS navigation, snow-cave building and 'Leave No Trace' ethics).  Participants will be encouraged to take this unique combination of life skills back to their home environment to experience life through a fresh lens.