ADVENTURE & WHITEWATER TRIPS

ADVENTURE TRIPS/WHITEWATER RAFTING EXCURSIONS

Travois offers whitewater Oregon river rafting trips and outdoor adventure activities to groups small and large. We specialize in three-day, two-night, all-inclusive rafting excursions along a 42-mile stretch of the Deschutes River in Oregon. More than just rafting or adventure activities, we will cater our agenda and fine tune a plan to strengthen your work culture, your fellowship, your trust. We also offer 1-day rafting trips on the North Santiam, McKenzie and Willamette Rivers. Expect to arrive home from a Travois adventure feeling empowered, inspired, empathetic and ready to tackle new challenges together. Please read below for in-depth descriptions of the diverse populations we serve. Additionally, please contact us if you have a group of any sort, we are ready and waiting to work with you.

• Athletic Team Building
• Church Groups
• Team Building for Employee Groups
• Foster Care Facilities
• Students & At-Risk Youth
• Special Needs Adults & Group Home Residents
• Family Reunions
• Ministries
• Adult Children of Alcoholics

“This past year I had the privilege of doing two (whitewater rafting) trips with Travois, a company operated by David Graham. From the introductions until the closing presentation, students were engaged in activities of self-exploration that helped them grow as individuals and embrace the uniqueness of every person in the group…the experience has spilled into the halls of AHS where students now take pride in talking care of each and every person in the school.”
Larry Lockett Principal (Retired), Astoria High School, Astoria, Oregon

“For 25 years, David and his crew have taken my brother on a rafting trip down the Deschutes with other disabled men. It is THE highlight of my brother’s year, a time when he hangs out with “the guys” and does the river. To say that this adventure is important to him is an understatement as he does not normally have friends with whom he socializes. David Graham has become my brother’s best friend. David has attended our family events with his wife. We are honored to know this godly man and his wonderful company.”
Cheryl L. Haase

TRAVOIS: A LEGACY OF SERVICE TO UNDERSERVED POPULATIONS

Since 1985, Travois has specialized in offering outdoor adventure activities, primarily three-day, two night whitewater rafting trips on a 42 mile stretch of the Deschutes River, for underserved constituencies. One of the initial adventure trips was designed for military veterans receiving outpatient psychiatric treatment through the Portland, Oregon Veteran’s Administration (VA) Hospital. Another experience was crafted for individuals who had suffered traumatic brain injuries. We’ve worked extensively with Special Olympics Oregon and developed countless rafting experiences for special needs adults in collaboration with representatives from community-based residential facilities.

Travois has also operates successful one-day rafting experiences on the McKenzie or Willamette River for a diverse roster of participants.

Foster care providers, personal representatives and program managers are encouraged to contact Travois at (503) 949-4213. In partnership with you, we are willing and able to create a memorable outdoor adventure experience based upon the interests of the individuals you serve.

SPECIAL NEEDS CLIENT ORGANIZATIONS SERVED BY TRAVOIS

King of Hearts/Rainbow Circle	Catholic Community Services	Shangri-La Corporation
Special Olympics Oregon	Spruce Villa	Veteran’s Hospital
Charsel Home	AGAPE House	Fairview Training Center
	Windsor Place

With Travois, outreach to special needs and underserved populations is not an afterthought or an add-on service element. A desire to provide outdoor adventure opportunities for individuals with intellectual disabilities and/or physical limitations was David Graham’s initial motivation to incorporate Travois in 1985.

While attending Oregon State University, Graham was presented with an opportunity to complete a student practicum experience at the Oregon State Hospital (OSH) in Salem, the state’s largest facility for individuals diagnosed with mental illness. This experience would inspire Graham to pursue a professional career in Therapeutic Recreation as he discovered that he could make a difference in the lives of individuals deemed expendable by society.

MINISTIRES SERVED BY TRAVOIS

Morning Star Church	Dayspring Fellowship	Trinity Covenant Church
The Bridge	Canyon Baptist	Salem Evangelical Church

Playing a Role in an Epic Adventure: Under the direction of Superintendent Dean Brooks, MD, and famed Everest mountaineer Lute Jerstad, OSH would sponsor a 3-week wilderness adventure at Anthony Lakes in eastern Oregon for 51 chronically ill patients who had been institutionalized for long periods of time. Graham, then a summer intern at the hospital, was selected to participate. This venture would garner international attention and was chronicled by Life magazine correspondent John Frook and photographer Bill Epperidge in the October 27, 1972 issue. Thirty of the patients who had taken part in the 1972 experience were discharged from the hospital within a year; 20 more were discharged over the next six years.

Obtaining Credentials: Graham’s role in the “epic adventure” led to a graduate fellowship at Indiana University where he completed his Masters–level Therapeutic Recreation coursework, worked as a Cottage Parent and supervised undergraduate recreation majors working in the IU Developmental Learning Center serving children with autism. After graduation, Graham took a full-time position at OSH in the Activity Therapy Department under the direction of Gene Richards.

“That camp (the OSH adventure camp) really opened my eyes to the prospect of outdoor adventure, particularly whitewater rafting, serving as a vehicle for personal growth,” Graham recalled. “Although I had enjoyed being in and around the water growing up, I had no prior experience with outdoor recreation.” He began the arduous task of developing a rafting program for OSH patients from scratch, purchasing equipment, developing itineraries and recruiting like-minded institution staff for support roles.

Graham obtained his boating guide license from the State of Oregon Marine Board in 1976 and procured a Special Recreation Application and Permit for the Deschutes River from the Bureau of Land Management in 1980.

Developing another Epic Adventure. Graham led the development of another large scale outdoor adventure experience in1980, a two week series of mountain climbing and rafting trips for 48 OSH and Dammasch State Hospital patients; procuring a $40,000 grant from the Collins Foundation.

After several orientation sessions, the patients and support team headed for central Oregon. Each group hiked three days at Three-Fingered Jack, participated in rock climbing at Smith Rock State Park, rested two days at Kah-nee-ta, then put in for a three-day rafting trip down the lower Deschutes.

David Arnold of the Eugene Register-Guard was on hand for the last phase of the orientation. “Roy came to the McKenzie River to avoid the tedium of the Oregon State Hospital ward where he spends his days and nights.” Arnold began.   “And maybe for a cure to whatever it is that ties him to the institution. He has been checking in and out of those buildings in Salem for most of his life, leaving reluctantly and returning with relief – too scared to live outside the hospital walls. But this summer, he got on a hospital bus with 27 other patients and staff members and came to the McKenzie River where thousands of people without diagnosed mental illnesses have come for years to forget debts, death and depression in the white water demands of slick rocks and rushing water.”

A career move: In 1980 Graham assisted the Chemawa Indian School Superintendent with the development of the “Chemawa Special Mental Health Project,” a grant proposal presented to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). The project was funded and Graham and OSH colleague Ed Bartlett Jr. would be hired to implement it.

Literature from that period highlighted some key differences between the Chemawa project and other treatment methods in use at other Indian Health Service clinics and BIA boarding schools.

“Recreation is often seen as a relatively minor service at the institutional or clinical level. Recreation services are often diversionary in nature and are not considered an integral part of a multi-disciplinary program. The principles of therapeutic recreation serve as the foundation of the (Chemawa) project….

     Due to the 24-hour cycle of education, training and supervision provided by the Native American boarding school, the daily life of the student is quite structured. In such an environment, it is easy for the student to “let things happen” rather than exhibiting much self-initiative.

     ….Unfortunately, too often therapeutic recreation service consist of practitioners doing ‘for’ or ‘to’ the clients rather than creating a climate where the clients do “for” themselves….(with the Chemawa Project)….The success – or failure of the programming is related to the self-initiative demonstrated by the students.”

     High risk outdoor adventures, specifically white water rafting and hot air ballooning, were used to introduce the Special Mental Health Project to Chemawa students and staff in the spring of 1981.

Taking care of personal business: In the mid-1980s, Graham would embark on a life unencumbered by alcohol and drugs. On September 30, 2020, he celebrated his 35^th anniversary of sobriety. As a result of his recovery, he has had opportunities to share his personal story with children and adults affected by substance abuse.

Introducing Underserved Individuals in the Community to Outdoor Adventure:

Graham was active in the Oregon Recreation & Park Association (ORPA). Through ORPA he met Tim Petshow, recreation director for the Shangri-La Corporation. They would develop a 1-day whitewater rafting outing on the McKenzie River in April of 1980 for a dozen teenagers and adults with intellectual disabilities receiving services from Shangri-La. “We were dealing with family members (of Shangri-La clients) who tended to be a bit overprotective,” Petshow recalled. “David was able, through a very effective pre-trip orientation, to put folks’ minds at ease.”

Shortly after Travois was incorporated, Graham began offering outdoor adventure trips during the summer months. One experience, a 1-day rafting trip, was designed for military veterans receiving outpatient psychiatric treatment through the Portland, Oregon Veteran’s Administration (VA) Hospital and was implemented in collaboration with Gary Twedt, VA Recreation Therapist.

Graham presented his fledgling company and services to the late Anson Bell, an influential MR:DD Community Programs Administrator. That encounter led to the development of outings crafted for individuals who had suffered traumatic brain injuries. Graham credits service providers Dennis Bell, Linda Barchenger and Bev Huden with “spreading the gospel” of the benefits of river adventure trips. In 1987, nearly 100 Special Olympics athletes from the mid-Willamette Valley took part in a Willamette River float trip from the Salem Yacht & Boat Club to Wallace Marine Park, accompanied by the Polk County Sheriff’s Boat Patrol.

For 15 years, Travois conducted an average of five 3-day trips per year on a 42-mile stretch of the lower Deschutes River from Buck Hollow Creek to Heritage Landing for special needs individuals, accounting for 4,500 river client days and 63,000 river miles. 10. We also offer 1-day rafting trips on the North Santiam, McKenzie and Willamette Rivers. Seven men, now in their 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, took at least one trip per season every year that Travois was in operation!

The Notable Origins of Travois:

In 1972, 51 Oregon State Hospital patients and 51 Oregon State Hospital staff spent 16 days on a wilderness trip in Eastern Oregon. It was an experimental, and perhaps radical, program designed to radically change the lives of its participants.

The idea for the expedition came when then Superintendent Dr. Dean K. Brooks witnessed transformations in a group of Girl Scouts undergoing a workshop with world-renown climber Lute Jerstad. As a reporter quotes: “Last year he [Dr. Brooks] watched an adventure camp Jerstad ran for Girl Scouts and decided that if young people could change roles so dramatically when encouraged to face challenges of white water rafting, wilderness survival and rock climbing, it might also help the mentally ill develop new self-concepts.” So, Dr. Brooks engaged Jerstad to lead a trip for the Oregon State Hospital. The patients selected to go, were those who had what was considered “chronic” and had been institutionalized for a long period of time. They were paired one-on-one with staff members from the hospital. The staff partners didn’t just include medical staff, but “non-clinical” staff as well, including painters.

The trip was chronicled by LIFE magazine correspondent John Frook and photographer Bill Epperidge in the October 27, 1972 edition. In the editor’s note of the article, they note……”they faced an unexpected problem: sorting out the patients from the staff. ‘each person wore a tag bearing only his first name,’ recalls Frook, ‘and several times someone we thought might fit into our story as a patient turned out to be a staff member. Once we’d worked out who was who, it took time to get used to sharing our campsites with people who had histories of violence and even homicide. I woke up one night and began wondering about these still shapes around me. I had started off with a kind of keep-your-back-to-the-wall wariness. But we had spent an exhausting week of forced interdependence, and I decided I just wouldn’t worry anymore. For the most part the patients were composed and extraordinarily tender. By the end of the trip, I’d fallen into a number of easy friendships.’”

This expedition served as a pilot program for one of the most extensive and comprehensive wilderness therapy program ever to be implemented at a state psychiatric hospital.

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.”
John Muir

“Wilderness is the great equalizer; it takes everyone down a notch because everyone is leaving their comfort zone. That leaves everyone on a wilderness trip at about the same level. It lets everyone see people for what they really are rather than how they get around.”
Mike Passo

Travois Today:

One of the paradoxes of the 40-year movement from institutions to community settings is: While special needs individuals have more freedoms and a higher quality of everyday life, most have little or no access to outdoor adventure opportunities and other peak experiences led by experienced Master’s level Therapeutic Recreation Specialists. Travois has successfully served this constituency for more than 30 years.

Foster care providers, personal advocates and program managers are encouraged to contact Graham at (503) 949-4213. He is willing and able to create a memorable outdoor adventure experience for the individuals you serve.