A Summer To Remember ☀️
By Gavin Rice | August 21, 2026I first heard about Elevate Youth through my brother, Jack, who in early 2025 was planning a bike trip across the country, from Boston to San Luis Obispo in California.
We discussed how eager he was to connect with the austere beauty of America’s great outdoors, but he realized that this was an opportunity few will ever experience, so he decided that he wanted the trip to be bigger than himself. After some research, he discovered Elevate Youth’s mission to provide outdoor experiences for underserved kids in the Boston area. Over the course of his journey, Jack raised over $7,500 in the name of sharing his love for the outdoors with the EY kids.
Early this spring, by pure coincidence, my friend Wynne Chase told me about how she’d be working for EY this summer. After seeing how fulfilled Jack had been by giving back to the Boston Youth, I contacted Chaya, EY’s Executive Director, to see if I could get involved. After some conversations, we decided I was a good fit to be an outdoor instructor for the summer. Suffice it to say, the last 9 weeks have flown by (which means I had fun, thank you for asking).
My introduction to EY was a trip by ferry to Cathleen Stone Island, where the kids explored the streambeds, racing hermit crabs in clamshells and getting their legs muddy in the shallow harbor island waters. I will never forget when one camper strolled up to me and quietly asked for me to follow them. I asked where to, and she walked to the edge of a streambed, turned and said that she’d never held a hermit crab before.
Thus ensued a cycle of me finding a hermit crab, trying to place it on her palm, her whipping her hand away at the last second, and repeat. She eventually worked up the courage to hold it, and I saw a look on her face that I can only describe as marveling at the experience of something that, hours before, was an entirely unknown possibility.
That is Elevate Youth’s calling card: offering kids a chance to experience moments they otherwise never would have. Whether that’s holding a hermit crab, catching a fish, camping in the forest, completing a rock climb, I saw that wonderment every single day of camp.
My personal favorite activity was kayaking, because the kids are empowered to move around and explore how they want (as long as they stay in between me and Waddy 😜). Each week some campers would start by moving across the Mystic River in a zigzag pattern, befuddled by the mechanics of kayaking. After some practice, we took the campers down an offshoot of the river, where lily pads grew dense and there was much less room to maneuver.
Here, many of the kids got to see great blue herons and painted turtles for the first time, and they’d tell me how beautiful and wild everything looked despite being only half a mile out from the highway. By the time we’d come out of the creek, most of the kids could deftly maneuver around any obstacle in their way, and a few each week would ask about coming back with their parents.
Experiences like this made my summer unforgettable, not only from enjoying the outdoors with the campers, but from the knowledge that they now are passionate about the outdoors. That fishing and climbing aren’t just things other people do, but things they can do and share with those around them. I think It’s only right to shout out the team that made this possible:
Waddy, my partner in crime, is rock-steady in providing whatever I or the kids need, and is the guy that makes it happen every day! I’m grateful to have spent every day of camp with someone so easy to be around. Chaya, in many respects, is the heart and soul of EY. She is unbelievably passionate about our mission, and I couldn’t imagine anyone else to lead it.
Wynne, you are the reason I worked with EY this summer, and for that you have my gratitude. Beyond that, you are an organizational dynamo and a key part in all our successes this summer, both in the office and the field.
EY, I’ll cherish this summer for all the laughs and smiles, and especially those moments of wonderment I saw every day. Even though the last 9 weeks have flown by, I know we all made a lifetime of memories. -Gavin Rice
