All you hear next is laughter. If there were two words to describe a day of team building activities with a group of people you only met that morning, those words would be SO FUN!

On Thursday, October 24, 2019, the third class for Leadership Newberry County convened at Camp Kinard, located in Batesburg-Leesville, for the first gathering of nine. After a short orientation of the program, we ate lunch together and chatted about who we are, including what type of wild animal describes us best, to the most uncomfortable situation we had ever experienced and how we dealt with that situation. If anyone told you otherwise, the best icebreaker is to sit with a group of strangers and eat a sandwich together. You will find out the preference of whether or not they prefer tomatoes (I prefer tomatoes) on their sandwich or if they prefer mayo (depends on the type of sandwich). And as I like to say, food is the way to your soul and new friendships.

After lunch, team building extraordinaire, Elliott Cox of Camp Kinard, led our small group in the first of 10 activities. We started with activities that encouraged us to learn one another’s names and to also work on our listening skills. These are what Elliott called the easy tasks. As the day progressed the activities became a little more challenging. We moved on to code breaking, pirate sailing – okay, just kidding, this activity was more like a strength and conditioning exercise mixed in with a physics lesson – where our goal was to get our captain across the finish line by learning to lean onto one another and to acknowledge each other’s strength and weaknesses.

We found ourselves balancing on a massive teeter totter and getting out of rope knots, and playing a little “golf.” By the time we got to activity number 10 we knew we were going to crush the final activity of the day… the hula hoop. Little did we know that it was the most difficult activity and rightly so. Sometimes there are tasks that placed before you that will catch you off guard. This activity involved one hula hoop and the index finger of each person in your team and the goal was to place the hula hoop on the ground together. Here is the kicker, the hula hoop had to sit on the top of your index finger. Easy peasy, right?! WRONG! Who knew trying to place a hula hoop on the ground would be as mind boggling as this activity was?! We finally were able to get the hula hoop to the ground, but only after a ton of discussion and a little laughter which is what leadership is all about, right? Learning, listening, sometimes following, and finding a path to reach your goal TOGETHER.

This is going to be a great year for Leadership Newberry County and we cannot wait to share what we learn from this experience. Keep an eye out for an article each month to recap what our group is up to. We hope to continue to make Newberry County a great place to live, work, and play! Remember to go out and HAVE SO MUCH FUN!

The Leadership Newberry County Class III kicked off the new year at Camp Kinard with team building exercises. Pictured: Top row, left to right: Kara Dipner Cannon, Shannon Longshore, Luke Layman, Gene Shealy. Bottom row, left to right: Samantha Snyder, Kayce West
https://www.newberryobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/web1_thumbnail_image0.jpgThe Leadership Newberry County Class III kicked off the new year at Camp Kinard with team building exercises. Pictured: Top row, left to right: Kara Dipner Cannon, Shannon Longshore, Luke Layman, Gene Shealy. Bottom row, left to right: Samantha Snyder, Kayce West Courtesy photos

Samantha B. Snyder

Leadership Newberry County Class of 2020