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Schools & Program
Visits - Jun, 1998 Issue #52
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STRAIGHT ARROW
Cusick, Washington
Bruce & Shirley Morelli, Co-Directors
509-445-1131
strarrow@povn.com
Lon’s Visit: May 31, 1998
The Morelli’s main activity this summer is their Summer Frontier Challenge,
A Character Building Adventure. Between April 15 and October 15, 1998, boys between the ages of 14 and 18 can enroll for a 60 to 90
day wilderness experience.
The Summer Frontier Challenge is a two or three month outdoor oriented program
for a maximum of 10 boys. The Morellis want to work with boys who sense they are missing something in their lives, and who need direction
from strong male mentoring in order to put their lives together. They do this by arranging a series of outdoor experiences which help
the boys growth through a “touch with nature.” They do not work with boys with drug and alcohol addictions, who need intense psychological
treatment, who are in trouble with the law, or who have physical limitations that would preclude them from full participation in intense
outdoor activities. They are looking for boys who have a dream that life can be better, and who have parents who share that dream.
The young men start by occupying a frontier style base camp on the back part
of the Morelli’s mountain homestead. This 50+ acre working farm is obviously functional and well-maintained, with a large garden,
orchard, horses, etc. It gives the impression of a safe mountain retreat most people only dream about. An added attraction is the
Bison Ranch in the neighboring property just across the bordering county road. The boys learn the basics of everyday living, working,
learning, and adventuring through maintaining their own camp as a group, and preparing and cooking their own meals, which includes
food from the homestead garden which they help with. There are many trips ranging from short overnight trips to week long field expeditions
into the surrounding back country, which is accompanied by extensive training in vital wilderness skills.
A person has to have an understanding of the Morelli’s personal history to
really understand their program philosophy and how they go about impacting boy’s lives.
Bruce would have a legitimate claim of being born a century or two too late.
He is most at home in the wilderness, and he is most animated when discussing the outdoors and wilderness experiences. He has made
his living most of his life using and teaching wilderness skills, homestead development, and leading long distance overland journeys.
He met and married Shirley, an Atlanta Georgia girl, about 23 years ago.
They met on a camping trip (of course) in California, one of the two camping trips Shirley had ever been on. She had no idea of what
she was getting into, but followed him as they moved into the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California to live off the land. They gradually
migrated north, raising their 3 sons and 2 daughters in a variety of locations in the wilderness of Central Idaho near Yellow Pine
Idaho, in the bush of Alaska, near Mount Hood in Oregon, and in 1992, to rural Northeastern Washington when they founded Straight
Arrow. They shared with me their picture albums showing a variety of scenes of them over the years. The variety of family pictures
featured rustic mountain cabins and domestic family backwoods entertainments and activities looked like the pictures had been taken
from history books of 19th century western settlers, except for the modern technology of the prints and lack of the 19th century artificial
poises.
Bruce joked about that being the “ultimate impact” program for Shirley. She
said one of the reasons she was willing to try a wilderness adventure was she had been beginning to realize the life she had been
leading “missed something.” In the wilderness she learned that what had been missing in her life was “effort.” Things had come too
easily for her, and she learned that acquiring something through her own efforts was not only necessary to a healthy self image, but
very deeply satisfying in a way she had never felt before.
Their deeply held personal philosophy in working with children is they want
to “pass the torch,” teaching the younger generation that effort is the very essence of a good life. They feel most children are missing
something important in their lives. That as a result, the magic has been taken out of their lives, and the missing ingredient is effort.
Further, that one of the best ways to learn how important effort is to a meaningful and satisfying life can be found through learning
to touch nature.
This is the direction they want to teach the children sent their way who
have been looking for independence, but in the wrong places.
Copyright © 1998, Woodbury Reports, Inc. (This article may be reproduced
without prior approval if the copyright notice and proper publication and author attribution accompanies the copy.)
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