A day for adventure

Students had a chance to walk a monkey bridge, shoot a bow and arrow, pet a wallaby and learn about the history of the boomerang at the eighth annual Adventure Days camp.

About 175 people, including local volunteers, teachers and students from schools in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois, gathered Thursday at Cape County Park. Adventure Days is a feature of the Boy Scouts' Learning for Life Adventure, a national character education program open to all elementary school students but particularly designed for those with special needs who are unable to participate in regular Scouting activities.

"We believe in focusing on abilities, not disabilities," said Cathie Lundry, director of special-needs Scouting for the Boy Scouts' Greater St. Louis Council.

With the theme of "Around the World" this year, the nearly 20 activities allowed students to end their school year by having fun.

In the archery range, Kristen McCoy, a 13-year-old blind student from Delta, landed an arrow just outside a bull's-eye. She was guided to the target, felt the shape of it, familiarized herself with the structure of the bow, then stepped back and planted the arrow. McCoy was a returning guest from last year who remembered the volunteer archery instructor, Alan Taylor.

Joey Yoder, of Fredericktown, Mo., petted a dear from Double R. Exotic Animals during the annual Boy Scouts Adventure Days at Cape County Park South on Thursday. (Diane L. Wilson)

McCoy then headed over to the monkey bridge, which is a rope walk. "I was kind of slow because I didn't know what was coming," McCoy said in response to a boy who walked the line in five seconds. McCoy then visited the Double B Exotic Petting Zoo, which featured a sheep, a llama, an antelope and a wallaby. For the most part the wallaby, a member of the kangaroo family, was more concerned with sticking its paws in a bucket of water to keep cool than being touched.

"He was still for me," McCoy said. "He was so cute."

The 2-month-old llama stood in the center of the cage to avoid the attention of all the students.

"They know where to go," said Meachelle Roose, who volunteered to bring her traveling zoo to the event.

The children were inquisitive about the animals. Gary Hathcoat, a student at the School for the Hearing Impaired in Marion, Ill., asked Roose if the wallaby was from South America or flown in from Australia and if it was put in a special cage so it didn't escape. He warned his teaching assistant, Linda Chapman, to back away from the llama. "He'll spit on you," he said. He was right.

Ricky Phillips of Fredericktown Elementary School, who has cerebral palsy, said his favorite part was the petting zoo, where he asked, "When is the wallaby going to boing?"

Phillips and his classmates toured the inside of a firetruck from the Cape Girardeau Fire Department. While his classmates were telling Capt. John Ryan they wanted to be firefighters when they grow older, Phillips moved on to the lummi sticks booth. There, volunteers from the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity at Southeast Missouri State University used two 7-foot pieces of hardwood sticks to create a rhythm while the children jumped in between them. Phillips pushed off his walker and carefully placed his left foot between the sticks.

tkrakowiak@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137