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Where we've come from...
In 1998, the International Mission Board (IMB) held a teambuilding retreat at WinShape Wilderness in Georgia, USA. From here, the East Africa regional team aspired to bring a teambuilding ropes course program to Brackenhurst Conference Center in Kenya. In July 2000, Mike Ewing, Strategic Facilitator for the IMB in East Africa, visited WinShape Wilderness in order to lay the foundation for bringing people and a course to Kenya. Kim Pace and Pete Morton, lead facilitators with WinShape Wilderness, were both asked at this time to consider moving to Kenya to help build the course and start the teambuilding program. Mike also addressed the possibility of building an indoor rock climbing gym in an existing squash court as well as starting a youth camp program. Over the next month, Gus Denzik, former owner, Experiential Resources, agreed to build the ropes course; Marc Heileman, CEO, "Cliff Dweller" Climbing Walls Inc., consented to build the indoor rockroom; Kim Pace and Pete Morton committed to spend the 2001 year founding and directing the program; Mark Lavigne, former manager of Racing Sport Gym in Nairobi, became the marketing director; and everyone worked to raise funding. The WinShape Wilderness staff, Tammy Preston and Rob Gunter, played the vital support role of raising funds and facilitating the equipment and personnel to reach Kenya.
Kim and Pete arrived in Kenya in early January 2001, followed by Gus and Marc in mid-January. The ropes course (low and high elements) and the first stage of the rockroom were complete in late February, and the first teambuilding program took place in late March. The first open house occurred in late April: a group of 30+ human resource managers and other team leaders visited the site and participated in an open day in order to learn more about the program. Then the month of May was spent in preparation for the first Camp Brackenhurst, a camp for youth ages 7 - 18. A team of 13 American college students came in late May to take on the role of counselors for the camp, and the month of June was spent running camp. In July, we turned our attention back to the ropes course, and spent the remaining months of 2001 facilitating ropes course and rock climbing groups.
James Roberts came on staff in late September 2001 as a third facilitator. Pete Morton returned to the states in December 2001, Martha Nduhiu joined the team in March 2002, James returned to the states in July 2002, and Kyle Henry came on staff in September 2002. Kim Pace is still directing the program. Mark Lavigne has since returned to Canada and Mike Ewing to the U.S. Marc Heileman came for a brief visit to complete the rockroom; and Dan Pervorse, CEO, Signature Research Inc., joined the building team by completing our outdoor climbing tower in July 2002. We held Camp Brackenhurst again in June 2002 and a staff of 14 volunteers came from the states to assist with that program.
From left to right: Mike Ewing, Kim Pace, Mark Lavigne & Pete Morton
raising a pole for a high element
February 2001-- Kim, Mark, Mike, Pete at the summit of Pt. Lenana, Mt. Kenya