Moving Toward Manhood
A structured weekend adventure for male youths (ages 12-15) and mentors. October 23-26, 1997, Whidbey Island
Why participate in the MTM Weekend? The MTM Weekend is a way to move youth toward manhood in a rigorous but non-competitive way, where everyone can pass the test. The weekend is professionally run and includes a challenging ropes course, authentic sweat lodges, orienteering and mask-making. The benefits include:
Youths
- Increase personal strength and self-knowledge
- Challenge yourself
- Find your place in the community of men
Mentors
- Draw on your wisdom and experience to create a rite of passage for young men
All
- Stretch personal limits and have fun!
Call Carl Woestwin at 633-0764 for more information on registering, or on volunteering during the weekend to help out on the Support Team.
If the fires that innately burn inside youth are not intentionally and lovingly added to the hearth of community, they will burn down the structures of culture, just to feel the warmth. - Michael Meade
Do you have a son, grandson, nephew or other young boy you care for or about? If so, perhaps you have wondered as did the ancients if becoming a man shouldn't be about much more than growing tall, noticing genders and sex, and disliking Mom & Dad! Moving toward manhood is about more than that. It always has been. Ancient cultures emphasized initiation into adulthood, and marked it with rites of passage designed to honor this great transition, test the boy, and prepare him to become a worthy man.
In our own culture, boys need a way to move toward manhood in a rigorous but noncompetitive way, where everyone can pass the test. Supervised risk-taking and insight development are key to the process. Boys and men also need to know we are part of a strong and vital community.
From October 23-26, 1997, the Moving Toward Manhood Weekend will take boys (ages 12-15) and their mentors through a structured, challenging adventure designed to initiate this auspicious transition from boy (youth) to man. The event will be held at the Whidbey Institute at Chinook, on beautiful Whidbey Island. Although just a short drive and ferry ride from Seattle, the Institute offers an expansive one hundred acres of evergreen forest and open meadow land.
Youths will test themselves and gain greater self-awareness during the MTM Weekend. Working together with their mentor, they:
Among our professional staff are our Ropes Course leader Michael Hansen, who also works as a trainer, consultant, and certified mediator. Michael has worked extensively with youth over the past eight years, and has taken over 10,000 people through his highly effective course. Steve Old Coyote will be leading our two authentic sweat lodges.
Steve is a Cree Indian who works with the Suquamish Tribe on youth programs. Danny Deardorff will be our special guest for the completion ceremony on Sunday, October 26. Danny is a well-known singer, song-writer and recording artist who will help celebrate the youths accomplishments!
How can you help? Call now for a brochure about this newly-restored tradition. Then join us by mentoring a youth you know who would benefit from this experience in maturity, or become a member of our support team which will provide for the youths and mentors during the MTM Weekend.
The ancient societies believed that a boy becomes a man through ritual and effort. It does not happen by itself. - Robert Bly
The MTM Weekend costs only $150 per person (which includes meals; $175 per person after Sept. 30). Call Carl Woestwin at 633-0764 for more information.
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