Semper Fi camp teaches Greensburg Salem educators to control stress, emphasize goals

Oct. 9—Kristin Dinkel, a first grade teacher at Greensburg Salem's Nicely Elementary School, jumped from atop a platform 30 feet above the floor of a tall outbuilding, launched herself across a 5-foot gap and used both hands to grab hold of a bar suspended in midair.

Before attempting that Leap of Faith challenge Thursday at Somerset County's Semper Fi Odyssey camp, Dinkel watched a fellow district teacher lose her grip on the bar and descend to the ground sooner than anticipated — with the help of a safety harness and a rope held by a camp staffer.

"I don't think I can do it now," said an apprehensive Dinkel. "I have a fear of heights, and I have a huge fear of this."

Minutes later, after her successful leap, Dinkel's heart still was racing, but her attitude had changed. "Now I feel better," she said. "That was a lot of fun, and I'm really glad I did it.

"I could feel the (safety) rope, and I knew in my head, if I fell, somebody would catch me, but I worried that my hands were going to slip off."

Dinkel and four other Greensburg Salem educators who spent five days at the Jenner Township camp also had the opportunity to rappel and descend a zip line from a high outdoor tower.

Those activities aren't meant so much to test physical capabilities as they are intended to reinforce the camp's mission of helping participants learn stress-reduction techniques while encouraging them to work toward team cohesion and setting and pursuing goals, said founder and Executive Director Tom Jones, a retired major general with the U.S. Marines.

"Our focus is on building teams, breaking down isolation, setting goals and building plans for meeting those goals," he said.

As each participant paused atop the 30-foot platform, anticipating their "leap of faith," fellow campers on the ground offered words of encouragement and reminded those on the platform to take conscious breaths — one of the stress-reducing methods taught at Semper Fi.

The camp originally was designed to help military service members and veterans recover from trauma and strive for resiliency. Over the past year, Greensburg Salem educators have begun attending as well, participating in activities and instructional sessions alongside veterans.

Jones said he initially was skeptical about including educators at the camp.

"I thought it would stifle the warriors from being open, but it's been the exact opposite," he said. While their circumstances may be different, both groups can be affected by stress.

"These educators are in a very high-stress environment in 2023," he said. "Some of them really have a lot of anxiety because of the rigors of the workplace."

Jessica Zahorchak, who teaches fourth grade at Hutchinson Elementary, admitted she was "very nervous" about coming to the camp. "I like to try new things, but I was nervous about the physical activity."

That didn't stop her from teaming with High School Co-Principal Adam Jones to complete part of a "high ropes" course. After climbing again to 30 feet and strapping in to safety harnesses, they advanced together— step by careful step — across a type of rope bridge with wooden footholds each spaced a few feet apart.

After the pair was back on firm ground, Zahorchak said, "Now I feel brave, but I don't think I'll ever do it again."

She was more enthusiastic about the strong relationships she was able to form with other camp participants who were teamed with her throughout the week.

"I really enjoyed getting to know my team and sharing with them," she said. "My favorite part is getting to know the veterans."

The feeling was mutual for Geovannie Cano, a Marine veteran from Chicago who suffered a traumatic brain injury and shrapnel wounds in 2006, when he encountered a suicide bomber while serving in Iraq. He's since dealt with chronic depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

"It's not only the camaraderie, it's the information that we're sharing," Cano said of the Semper Fi camp's benefits. "Coming here, my peers have helped me put a light at the end of the tunnel, and I feel more motivated than ever."

Cano has pursued a career as a comic-book creator, basing stories on his experiences, and said he wants to help other veterans express themselves through writing.

Among the camp-inspired approaches Adam Jones wants to share with others at Greensburg Salem are ways to reinforce goals for both teachers and students.

"It's not just stating a goal, but writing it down and planning it out, to make sure it's working," he said. "It has to be written down and it has to be voiced to somebody, to help hold you accountable."

In addition to breathing techniques, the camp participants learned to de-stress and gain focus through practices including yoga, tai chi and meditation.

Heidi Brown, who teaches math to Greensburg Salem seventh graders, attended the Semper Fi camp in February. She said the experience helped her bring added focus to brief meditation exercises she often leads her students in at the beginning of class.

"It has a calming effect on all students of all needs," Brown said, indicating the exercises can incorporate breathing techniques as well as words of encouragement and motivation.

She noted students may experience "a certain level of anxiety with math that doesn't necessarily carry over to other subject areas. Meditation lets my students know that I care about them as people, above all else, and helps to calm apprehensions about the subject."

Dinkel believes the camp's yoga and breathing techniques will help prepare her to "be more present" for the students in her classroom and for her three children at home.

Her goal at home, she said, involves "putting down devices, really having face-to-face conversations and making sure my children know they're more important than any distractions around me.

"It's kind of the same idea at school — to not let what's happening outside of the classroom interrupt my time with the students."

Michele Cribbs, a former sixth grade special education instructor who now teaches fourth grade at Nicely Elementary, attended Semper Fi last spring.

She said she has been able to share the camp's stress regulation techniques with her students.

"I have been showing my students how to do some of the breathing work, to help regulate themselves," she said. "If students are just acting based upon their nervous systems alone, they're always living in that fight-or-flight reaction and they never are logically thinking.

"We all need to take a step back to consider, 'Am I rationally thinking before I'm acting or saying something?' That's a huge take-away."

During the school year, 25 Greensburg Salem educators will have visited the Semper Fi program, according to Superintendent Ken Bissell. Tom Jones also traveled to the district to address faculty at a recent in-service gathering.

The weeklong camp, including food, costs $1,600 per person, an expense that has been covered by a state grant the district received to support mental health and wellness efforts. Bissell said that money will run out by the end of the school year, but he wants the Semper Fi trips to continue.

"We're on the lookout right now for other funding sources," he said.

Semper Fi is held at the 500-acre Outdoor Odyssey camp, which provides separate summer mentorship experiences for youth, including some students referred from Greensburg Salem.

"I've had students who have been here for the summer camp," said Zahorchak. "Now I can tell them, 'I've been there, I've done that, and I think it would work very well for you.'"

Jeff Himler is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jeff by email at jhimler@triblive.com or via Twitter .