Paddling group reaches at-risk youth

Despite being pretty much toast this Monday morning, I’m going to try to tell you about one of my best adventures ever. It was a three-day, 45-mile trip around Penobscot Bay with 64 other kayak paddlers that ranks right up there with being more fun than a barrel of monkeys.

Best of all, the effort was a benefit for Rippleffect, a Portland adventure-based youth development organization whose mission is to:

. Encourage healthy risk-taking as an alternative to self-destructive behavior;

. Provide a platform to develop positive life skills through mentoring and internships;

. Foster the appreciation and preservation of coastal ecosystems.

Fifty-six paddlers each raised $750 or more to participate in this, the second annual regatta fund-raiser. In addition there is strong support from businesses and corporations such as Current Designs, Green Design Furniture, Munis, UnumProvident, SFI, Full Court Press and Fleet.

I was lucky enough to get invited along as one of the eight guides for the trip. I’d heard about last year’s regatta and it sounded like fun. So when the opportunity came up this year to guide for it, I practically begged for the opportunity.

Rippleffect founder Ted Regan describes the organization as one that reaches out to at-risk youth through the creation of paddling clubs that educate them about risky behavior while providing them with an opportunity to build self-esteem and confidence.

The organization hopes to establish 25 KayaKlubs in Maine, each connected to the other through a community Web site that will document the challenges and successes of the participants. Once a year, the adventurers from all 25 KayaKlubs will gather for a three-day wilderness retreat hosted by the Rippleffect Esteem Team.

Regan founded Rippleffect in 1999. A merchant marine and educator from Cape Elizabeth, Regan and a team of five sea kayakers left Lubec on May 29 and paddled southward along the Eastern Seaboard as an AIDS awareness expedition. If you check out their Web site at www.rippleffect.net, you’ll see that they met with youth along the coast, “engaging them in discussions concerning the risks facing them (i.e., drugs, alcohol, and unsafe sex) and took them paddling along their local beaches to illustrate the positive benefits of acceptable risky behavior like kayaking, mountain biking, sports, etc. ”

Two of the original six paddlers, Regan and Aaron Fredrick, finished the journey to Key West, Fla. The team met more than 2,400 youths, took more than 400 homeless, HIV-positive and at-risk youth out on the water and raised more than $40,000 for AIDS support organizations along the coast, including the Peabody House in Portland.

This adventure inspired Regan to transform Rippleffect into an adventure-based organization that focused on youngsters’ development through healthy risk-taking and wilderness experiences.

Both Regan and Fredrick as well as the whole Rippleffect organization and a host of volunteers were along on this regatta helping to make it the most enjoyable trip for the fund-raisers. Thanks to the volunteers those of us paddling hardly needed to lift a finger, except to paddle. Gear was transported by larger boats, sumptuous meals were prepared, campsites were set up and entertainment arranged.

No effort was spared to make the fund-raisers as comfortable as could be, including snacks served (read: thrown) from a support boat by Alex “the naked snacktician.” (It didn’t do much for my appetite, I promise you, but everybody seemed to take it in stride. Apparently it’s his thing and everybody sort of goes along with it.)

We left Castine early Friday morning in four pods of 14 or so paddlers each and made the crossing to the northern tip of Islesboro, our first rest stop. Then it was south to Ram and then Flat Island, where we were served a lunch of sandwiches, beverages, chips and pickles. We lucked out and missed the thunderstorms that whacked other parts of the state, although the heavy, smoglike air did nothing for the view.

At Warren Island, just across from the ferry terminal at Grindle Point on Islesboro, there were massage therapists, an acupuncturist, a yoga instructor, a complete lobster dinner and wonderful music provided by Imanna, an all-woman rhythm band that put the cap on a great day. Their soothing yet stirring West African music was the perfect end to the first leg of our journey.

Saturday morning we packed our boats and headed to the southern tip of Islesboro and then easterly to North Haven, where we stopped for a fabulous lunch buffet at Pulpit Harbor. Our caravan of kayakers then headed northeasterly to Butter Island, a private island owned by the Cabot family. Its height of land provides awesome views of Penobscot Bay. We spent the night and were treated to distant fireworks in the North Haven thoroughfare and an incredible meteor shower compliments of Mother Nature.

Sunday morning we circled Butter, headed north through the Barred Islands and past Great Spruce Head Island to Pond Island south of Cape Rosier, where we stopped for another lunch buffet before making our way northward for the return to Castine Harbor around 4 p.m. A lasagna dinner and awards ceremony concluded the three-day odyssey.

It’s easy to see why so many of this year’s paddlers were veterans from last year’s regatta, what with all the friendships that developed, the wonderful meals and assistance from the volunteers and the most excellent paddling anyone could imagine.

Hey, Ted, sign me up for next year, will you?

Jeff Strout’s column is published on Thursdays. He can be reached at 990-8202 or by e-mail at jstrout@bangordailynews.net.