HRL: The Wall...

Happy Sunday evening to you.  I apologize to those who like reading my blog for the lack of posting.  This time of year is my busiest and it's tough to write.  I did have a great week of running.  I ran 60.2 miles and have run 115 miles over the past two weeks.  Lots of running early in the morning at 5a before the sun rises.

We are a little over half way in our Student Staff Training and we just returned from camp today.  We take our staff to Camp Tecumseh in Brookston, In.  It's a terrific place and our host, Neal Morehead, is absolutely terrific.  We take our staff to camp so that we can continue our development as a team.  If you follow this blog, then you know I think of our HRL Program as special and I saw so much of that this weekend.  Neal challenged our 48 person group to tackle an activity for our final activity of our ropes course segment called "The Wall."  In running, "The Wall" is often referred to as that point in the marathon that you just don't think you can get over.  At camp, "The Wall" was a 12 foot wall that had to be scaled without any assistance other than people and it was tough.  In fact, there were a good number of people who were hesitant to try.  In my mind, I worried that if we tried this and it did not go well then what would that do to our team.  Wow...what happened during the activity was amazing.  The group came together and quickly decided that rather than have a goal of everyone having to scale the wall--an all or nothing goal--that the goal should be for us to get those over the wall who wanted to go and for everyone to find a way to assist in that goal.  Everyone contributed by either lifting, spotting, pulling, cheering, supporting or climbing.  And...everyone felt encouraged and valuable, and everyone helped us succeed.  There was a point in which one of the staff members took a risk and climbed the wall despite being very nervous.  This picture defines what that moment was like when she did it--a moment of celebration for something she wasn't quite sure if she could do. 

Pure Elation!

As each person helped our team achieve something that was challenging, I felt our team grow stronger, closer, and ready to do well this year.   Driving home I made a comment that we "really have a chance for something special this year."  Very quickly I said, "well, we had something very special last year too."  Then...the person and I talked about how nice it was to be working in an environment was there was a culture of "building something special" every year.

Camp once again reminded me of how lucky I am to work with the HRL Staff at IUPUI.  We truly have a special family and I love the enthusiasm and pride displayed by our staff.  This week was so cool because as we trained our new team, I received at least 10 correspondences (some in person) from former staff members who wanted to check-in on training, say hello, and just remain active.  I love it and it makes me proud of the people who helped build our team--past and present--and the folks who are working hard each day to help us develop a great place for our residents.  Have a wonderful Sunday evening.  I probably will not blog again until after opening (8/20).  Happy running to you...

Many of the 2011-12 HRL Staff Team