Closing out Summer 2025

This summer was the best summer we have had at RTH. We were able to have less behavior issues than we have in previous years which led to increased fun! We kicked off the summer with celebrating our 2025 Graduate at the Huntington Center. A few days after graduation we held a graduation go-cart party with all of our boys and teachers!

---

Grandfather Mountain - Banner Elk, North Carolina

This year we took a break from our traditional trip to Gatlinburg Tennessee and decided to try something new. In Tennessee we would spend hours each day in the car which had an impact on behaviors so, we made a decision to have less day to day travel and have more rest and relaxation for the boys and the adults. Our trip quickly developed the theme Relax, Explore, and CONNECT.

Laura, Mike, Annette, Mason, Thomas, Chrissy, Trevor, Caleb and Scott went on the trip!

Relax- Days at the resort utilizing the amenities

• Fishing in the resort pond - not many fish were caught unfortunately

• Pickleball/Tennis

  • TPs competitive sides were exposed!

• Mini Golf

• Swimming

EXPLORE

• Went to Grandfather Mountain and crossed the Mile High Bridge

  • Some went hiking on a more difficult path with Scott!

  • Got to see Cougars, Bears and Elk!

• Trevor took his group to Appalachian State University (they beat Michigan on Sept. 1, 2007)

• Mike, Scott, Mason, and Thomas took a large group to visit Linville Caverns

  • EVERYONE GOT TO EXPERIENCE TOTAL DARKNESS - most for the first time!

• The entire group hiked up a moderately challenging hiking path high into the mountains.

Connect - daily

• Board games

• Group conversations

• Night walks

On trips we have daily contests and weekly contests. This year we had a scavenger hunt for each group to take pictures with a digital camera and print out stickers to place in a journal. We also played a bandana game where teams would earn and lose points based on having your own bandana or someone else's. This yet again brought out the competitiveness in our TPs.

Each group received a digital camera for our photo scavenger hunt and group bandanas.

Contest Results

Caleb and Scott won the photo scavenger hunt!

Mike was the bandana stealing MVP. Laura, Annette and Mike won the game. Even though Annette gave her bandanna away to the other team at the end.....

Summer

Unfortunately we couldn't stay in North Carolina for the entire summer! When we returned home we started up our summer programming.

STEM - with Eric

• Built a Bluetooth speaker and other STEM kits from Crunch labs

  

  2025 STEM kits!

Tutoring - with Ms. Harding

• Ms. Harding worked with several of our boys to help increase their reading and decoding!

Craftsman Class - With Jake

• One group of boys made night stands

  • Tore down pallets

  • planed the wood

  • cut and assembled

• The second group built bird houses and painted them

Adventure Class - With Jake

• Hiking

• Fishing

• Swimming

• Mountain bike riding

Active group - With all TPs

• Hiking - At different parks in the area twice per week

• Bike rides - On the University Trail with rides ranging 10 - 18 miles!

Outdoor Parties

• Go-Cart Parties - Cookout

  • The boys drive our Go-Carts on a track we create in our field.

  • Yard games

• Water Party - Cookout

  • Slip N' Slide

  • Water balloon games

  • Water sponge dodgeball

  • Frozen T-Shirt game

In conclusion we had a fun filled summer with our boys. We begun the summer with most of our boys on the first level (training) in our motivational system. By the end of the summer we had all but 2 on bronze or higher! We have big plans for next summer!