2025 March - Meet the newest 906AT staff member, Elizabeth Peterson

Well, a whole series of things, right? And you're right, it did start for me before that interview in 2021, because it started for me when I met you. And I met you — it took me a while to remember, but when I went back, it was when I worked at WNMU and you came in for a media meet to talk about 906 Adventure team. That's right, yes. And it was the first time I met you, and I remember seeing what you were doing on Facebook and wanting to share it with our audience. And I remember you leaving and going, 'Oh, I got to work with that guy.' Yeah, okay. I mean, I drank the Kool-Aid real hard. It just spoke to everything I felt like I was at my core. Yeah. And so I continued to follow you, continued to get to know you, and then that job popped up. And I — yeah, I wasn't qualified for that, but it was an opportunity to possibly work for this organization, and I could learn the skills. That's what I felt like at the time, right. So didn't work out, totally fine. We continued to work together. I continued to work at TV6 and used that platform to help spread the mission of what you were doing here. And in that same length of time, I had a son who was in middle school who was struggling. And I kind of, as a mother, I just didn't know what to do. I felt like I had done everything I could for him, but I was at the point where every night I was worrying about him. He just felt so low about who he was, and it didn't matter what I said or what I did, I couldn't get him to see what I saw — that he was brave and strong and intelligent and he could do these hard things. And so I turned to you and turned to the 906 Adventure team program.

Absolutely. What were they? Well, he wasn't a big biker, right? This was — sure, we rode bikes that zip down the bike path or whatnot when he was little, but not on trail, not in this way. He — I would say this was probably the first thing that he'd ever done really on his own. He was never really into organized sports.

We tried a couple things. I think he played baseball. That was not good. I might have had a little stint in soccer, you know. None of it really worked. Also, I tried to get him out in the woods with just the family — hiking, backpacking, canoeing, all of it. He liked when he was little, but then there became a point where he just wasn't interested, you know.

He was mid-middle school, so like sixth grade. What is that, 10, 11? In that area.

Yeah, I feel like I was just starting to kind of worry about him. Okay, because it really called to me. Pre-middle school, yes. Yes, okay.

Sure, sure. Because I didn't know how much more he could take, right? He was sad, he was down. I mean, we talk about it now and he talks about it as being some of the hardest — his hardest stress of his childhood. Okay. I could see it, I could feel it. And if he failed, what would that do to where he was already at? Sure. But I also knew — he's my second child, so my daughter and my son are eight years apart. Raising her was very different. She took to hiking and backpacking, and I watched her do really hard things and what it did for her. We took a trip to Isle Royale when she was just little — I mean, she was like 15, 14, but just a tiny, tiny human. And man, she didn't think she'd make it through that. Yeah. But I watched her that whole trip through Isle Royale find that strength and be at the bottom and go, 'I can't, what am I going to do?' Right. You're out on Isle Royale, you have to keep going. Never complained. That was like a prerequisite to going on the trip. Sure. You come, there's no complaining, we just do it. And it's hard out there.

Well, honestly, I talked to him. I needed him to commit just the same way that I was going to commit, right? And so we had conversations. I told him, I said, 'I don't know if this is going to be the right fit for you, but if you commit, you commit. You're all in. All in or all out.' And I let him know, I can't force you into this. I don't feel like I could ever do that to my kids. So I need you to be a willing participant and be as upfront on the same page as me going in. And so he's like, 'Yeah, I'll give it a try. I'll try it. I don't think I'm going to like it, but I'll try it.'

It didn't go well.

No, okay, there's a turning point. But pretty much the whole summer toward the end of the year. Is this the picture of him toward the end of bike club standing by the Kirby Hill sign? Yeah, I remember that picture. Big moment. Big moment. So he did not like bike club at first. Tears on the way there for several weeks. And then it got to a point where he would be in the back of the car crying, 'Do not make me go, do not make me go.' And I had to kind of pull myself together, right? Because as a mom, I just want to take them home and wrap them up and keep them safe. So we had a conversation in the car. 'You committed to this. What does that mean? That means we see it through, whether it's hard, whether it's great. You see it through to the end because you said yes.' We had that conversation, right? Like we signed up in the beginning together. So he was in.

And so I said, 'Are you feeling unsafe?' Because that's a different situation, right? If he's crying because he thinks his safety is in jeopardy, well then as a mom, here comes Mama Bear going to find Todd, you know. You wouldn't be the first. But he said, 'No, I feel safe.' And I said, 'Well, why don't you want to go?' And he could not give me a reason. He just didn't know. 'It's uncomfortable, it's so uncomfortable.' That's why he didn't want to go. Absolutely. And I knew sitting there, it wasn't that he didn't want to go because of your program. It was because he didn't think he could do it, right? He just didn't like the way he was showing up. He wanted to be more than what he was showing up as, but he didn't know how yet.

It was really hard. And as a mom, it was really hard to allow him to go through it, to feel those uncomfortable moments. It would have been easier to say, 'All right, let's pack it in, let's go home.' Yeah. But it would have done him no good. None. None. So he went. And it was that night that he came back and he said, 'You know, I see these kids get to the top of Kirby Hill, and I think I'm going to do that by the end of the summer.' I'm like, so he picked a goal. He found a goal. Yeah. And it was the first time that he came back from bike club with a goal, with some feeling of motivation, inspiration, right? Like, and so I was, 'Yes, we've got a goal. Let's go. I'm all in for this.' So he tried week after week after week. Nope. Getting closer. He'd be, 'I got a little closer, I got a little closer.' And suddenly he wasn't crying on the way there. He was like, 'I wonder if this is going to be the night, this is going to be the week.' And he had wonder. He had created wonderful relationships with his leaders, the adults that led his group. Man, they hung out in the back with him and talked with him. And that also helped him, just having a place to share what he was going through and somebody just to listen and keep him going. It was really, really cool.

Yeah, and that was hard for him at first to get used to, because he was like, 'Well, I'm not in the front.' And I'd be like, 'Who cares? That's not what this is about.' Nobody wants to feel like they're holding the group up. Yeah. I don't care if you're nine or 90, you don't want to be that person, right? Because we're programmed to not be that person. Sure. Because it's not good. Yeah. And Cable was actually in his group that first year. They rode together a lot. They were together, and he encouraged. He was younger than him, he was more used to being on the bike and being on trails, but man, he was so supportive. And he kept Sawyer going. He was another voice that Sawyer looks back on and it's like, 'Man, that kid, he helped me out.' And it's pretty remarkable for somebody younger to kind of support somebody older in that way. I don't think that's something that's hard for kids.

So last night of the bike club of that first year, and he's getting out of the car and he's like, 'This is it. I either make it or I don't.' And so we talked about making it, just doing it no matter what, right? Like I told him, I said, 'Your body, your mind is going to tell you to stop. It's just a natural thing that we do. It's like, I can't do it, my legs hurt, I'm tired. Your body will get you to the top if you fight that noise and just do it, no matter what, no matter how bad it hurts, just go.' He's like, 'Okay, okay.' So man, that whole time he was at Adventure team that night, I was so nervous. Is he going to make it? Is he going to make it? I want him to make it so bad. This has got to be it. This has got to be it because he had failed so many nights or weeks prior. And so he made it. And he got the picture. And when you sent it to me that night, yeah, it was — he came back just beaming. I mean, he was just so excited. And he said, 'I heard my voice told me to stop, and then I heard you tell me, don't, just go.' So as a mom, I'm like, 'Yes, okay, this is great.' To me, that was just a successful summer. Like I watched him change, but I didn't know what he would do with that. I didn't know how that would translate into growing. But that was it. That was the catalyst for some major change in his life. I think that was the moment where he realized he got to decide, right? Like who he was and how he represented himself. And he started eating healthy, he started working out, he started creating these healthy habits. And I actually brought him to a trainer because I was a little nervous he was overdoing it, right? He's still a growing boy. There are parameters that I want to make sure you're hitting because we can go the super unhealthy route in this direction as well. So he got some really wonderful advice from Travis Alexander, who helped him learn the importance of fueling your body properly, especially as a young teenager. And he's continued on this path of taking care of himself, not being afraid of doing hard things. You know, kids these days are faced with so many things. And he has days where he is so down or school's tough, relationships are tough, friendships are tough. And I have watched him pick himself back up, figure it out, fight through it, allow himself to have that hard stuff, and then find his route. How is he going to tackle it? What's he going to do with it? Find a way through it. Yeah. And it's been incredible to watch. I'm super grateful. He's still a part of the 906 Adventure team. He now is an apprentice lead. Yep. And I asked him at the end last year, the first year that he did that, I said, 'What do you think? Will you do that again?' 'Yeah, I liked that. It's good.'

Okay. So I just want to say this about his experience now. It also creates this incredible sense of community, that full circle, right? Like last year, Sawyer rode in the back with some of the slower kids. He used those same lessons that he learned from someone and gave them back. And to learn at such a young age the value of giving back to your community, of sharing, of being a part of that bigger picture — I wish I would have done that when I was younger, you know. It is so valuable. And now it's not as much about building his confidence as it is now propelling it forward to help the next generation. And seeing that cycle is really, really cool.

Yeah. Well, I tell this story so that people really understand why I'm so passionate about this organization. It's personal, and it's not personal, right? Like I want every child to go through what Sawyer went through and have that opportunity in their own way. And in every community. And so I'm so excited to be here, to be able to be a part of that for many more reasons, but that one is the most personal, the one that I wear closest to my heart. And it's the one that I think will resonate with parents out there.