Camp Onidah: helping teens develop self-mastery

Team fundraiser

Bryton Peterson and Riley Peterson are organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

I promise to be of service to you and will allow you to be of service to me until both you and I successfully defeat this demon that assails us.

Who it’s for?

There are many teenage boys who have developed habits or compulsions of using pornography as an unhealthy coping mechanism. They seek professional help through the Sons of Helaman program, and for most of them, group-style training is transformative. But there are other boys who despite valiant efforts, struggle to understand and implement the tools being taught. Hands-on learning through meaningful and fun adventures would benefit these boys.

My story

My name is Bryton. As a teenager, I struggled with sexual self-mastery compulsions. I did not know how to healthily deal with the strong emotions and stresses that come with that part of life, so I turned to pornography for comfort. Despite my best efforts on my own, and with the support of my parents, I was incapable of functioning without it. I eventually found support and training through the Sons of Helaman program. Using the skills they taught me I eventually began working lasting recovery. Now I want to give back to the program that helped me so much.

As a teen and early adult, I spent my summers working at a Boy Scout Camp. From a Counselor-in-Training to Camp Director, I discovered a love for the experiences of the outdoors and how adventure can teach essential lessons with incredible depth. My goal is to use the things I learned from eight summers of scout camp experience to provide adventure-based learning that reinforces the principles taught in the Sons of Helaman program, especially for boys who learn better from their own experience rather than from hearing someone explain it to them. I call this adventure, “Camp Onidah: the place of arms.”

What is Camp Onidah?

Camp Onidah is an outdoor camping event where we use adventure-based learning to help young men practice advanced principles of Self-mastery taught by Life Changing Services and Sons of Helaman. It is intended to be like a combination of an FSY-type conference and High Adventure, with a bit of Boot Camp to help them stretch and grow. Like FSY, we promote fun in a Spiritual environment and use physical activities to teach spiritual principles. Participants will spend time working in teams to develop self-mastery skills through fun and engaging activities and to learn from each other.

What participants will do/learn

Through formal swordsmanship training, they will learn

the importance of preparation
how basic skills pave the way for more advanced skills

Through safe, supervised team building and war games, they will learn

how to repeat the tools and strategies that lead to success
how to learn from failure in positive and motivating ways

Through blacksmithing lessons, the boys will learn

precision
the value of repeated practice

Participants will come away from their Camp Onidah experience with a greater capacity to practice self-mastery and an increased understanding of how self-mastery principles work.

Why GoFundMe?

The participant’s registration fee can pay for some of the materials needed to run Camp Onidah. These would be things like their food and the propane to cook it. There are other things that are one-time buys that I don’t want the participants to have to pay for. The more of these things purchased through your kind donations, the cheaper the fee will be for boys to experience Camp Onidah.

What we’re asking for:

Campsite: $840

The place my team and I have chosen is a beautiful wooded hill in a quiet valley near Eden, Utah.

Safe swords: $580

Our sword fighting classes will use safe, foam swords based on the regulations of national LARPing leagues that have mastered how to build and use these kinds of “weapons.”

Archery Equipment: $545

The set of bows, arrows, and wrist protectors we hope to buy will offer another fun way to teach the importance of precision through practice.

Hammers: $150

Different size boys need different size hammers. Because I want to be able to have two boys working on their blacksmithing projects at a time, I’ll need pairs of each of the three sizes of hammers.

Anvil: $800

To effectively maximize the time the boys can work their metal, I need two blacksmithing anvils. My father is generously allowing me to borrow the anvil he inherited from his family, and I have a piece of railroad track that would work in a pinch, but I really like to give these boys the best experience in what will likely be a once in a lifetime opportunity for many of them. A new anvil would go a long way to providing that experience.

Our total goal is $2,825 to acquire these one-time purchases I don’t want these participants to pay for. Any donations that exceed our goal will be used to make our participant fees even lower so more boys have an opportunity to attend.