September 24, 2010
Niagara Falls, Ontario Canada

Photo Media Class Lesson: Be the World Champion of Thank Yous

Jason Terry stacks students in this photo to get closer to his subjects faces and creatively frame one of five Bell 407 Helis.

“I’ve found in life the more you give the more that comes back to you.” -Joe Kowalski, owner Ottawa Kayak School Keeners Youth Program

Background Relation to Niagara Helicopters
Four days ago New River Academy stopped at Niagara Falls, Ontario for one purpose, to excitedly receive free helicopter rides over the famous Niagara Falls. Jessica Droujko had attended the spring Chile semester and this summer won the title of “Canadian National Jr. Women Kayak Champion.” This title also earns Jessica the prestigious honor of competing by invitation in the 2011 World Freestyle Kayak Championships.

Click to check out Niagara Helicopters

The Droujko’s were immediately interested in Jessica’s training and soon enrolled her in the New River Academy spring semester to Uganda. Lena Droujko graciously invited the entire school for a free heli ride over Niagara Falls. Lena would also give the student body free passes to attractions such as Ripley’s Believe it or Not, Ripley’s Moving Theatre, and a curious wax musuem. The Droujko’s hospitality did not end there. Lena invited our five girls to stay at their home and Niagara Helicopters fed the school both dinner and breakfast. Add to that free group photos and the Droujko’s are very popular amongst the New River Academy camp.

YES, YEs, Yes we know, “What a fantastic photo class opportunity.” But there is actually a bigger lesson to be learned here than just snapping shots. For strictly photo lesson purposes we focused on pre-prep photography and capturing creative group shots. “Try to envision a group photo different than just the typical straight on shot.” Why? Square group shots often can not get close enough to faces, and may miss telling a story. Jason Terry caught this creatively “people stacking” shots that allowed him to get close to the faces and illustrate the heli.

The Bigger Picture or Life Lesson: “Be the World Champion of Thank-Yous.”
Call it old school traditional values or what ever you please. The truth is that youth most often just don’t think about the value of being thankful. Why is that? In general until you have owned a home, planned events, cooked group dinners, or done extensive work for others you just do not have a perspective that allows one to have an understanding of the efforts and energy these tasks take.

Slowly, New River Academy students begin to experience cooking for groups of 20 and even gain responsibility for planning group events.

Let’s examine a common kayak group event for today’s lesson. The “Freestyle Kayak Competition” is a well-known event to each student. And it is common that at such events many people walk around complaining about the timing, the structure, the food… Unless, of course, you are one of the few who has experienced the challenges of being in charge.

“What can I do?” is a school philosophy and weekly award that sets goals to instill in each of us the idea of asking what we can do to help in such situations. Further, as students are taught and given responsibilities they begin to experience new life-perspectives of what it takes to plan such events.

Lena Droujko and Ruedi Hafen, owners Niagara Helicopters, simply went above and beyond. Lena arranged free heli rides, invited the girls into her home, provided two meals for 20 persons, gave free passes to Niagara attractions, and was our personal host. Additionally, when the school Suburban began to experience problems she took us to their family Porsche mechanic. He put some rear-end fluid in the differential box and sent us on our way.

Is being thankful really that valuable? Any person who has mastered this skill realizes the tremendous value. And I for one could use a class or two myself. For now, let’s be proud we are focusing on it today. First and foremost any person such as Lena Droujko and Ruedi Hafen of Niagara Helicopters should have songs of praise written about them for the extended hospitality. And to not go out of one’s way to thank them would just seem, well for lack of a better word… lacking. Second, trying to write about value of thank yous seems a bit self-centered like your doing it for some personal gain. But the blunt truth is that those persons in life who are masters of “thanking” tend to have endless doors of opportunity opening for them. For today’s lesson we’ll leave it at these two points.

A student posed the question, “What can we do to repay you?” And Lena replied, “You can post your great experiences on our facebook page and write a summary of your experience on Tripadvisor.” So, it is with great pleasure that New River Academy photography and videography class share our photo, video, and blogging talents and thank this family that was impressively gracious to our school family.

Attention: New River Academy Families
We want to encourage you to also send your thank yous to Lena and Ruedi and soon enough your child will be getting to know Jessica.

Niagara Helicopters Facebook Page

Niagara Helicopters Trip Advisor Page

“Thank you” families for your support.

“And that has made all the difference.”
by David Hughes
Executive Director- Huge Experiences’ New River Academy

To break up our long drive back from the Ottawa River we stopped off in Niagara Falls, Canada and visisted Jessica Droujko, who attended NRA last year and will be attending second semester. Her family graciously donated twenty helicopter rides to our students and staff. For many, it was their first helicopter ride, so they were excited but at the same time nervous. After the ride, they saw how safe and secure they were with Niagara Helicopter’s exceptionaly skilled pilots. Ruedi, the owner of Niagara Helicopter, was in the running for Aviator of the Year after saving a guy who tried to commit suicide off Niagara Falls. Our Trip was so much fun, and well worth the stop! Thank you so, so much Lena Droujko, Jessica Droujko, and Ruedi Hafen! Helicopter rides are deffinately the coolest thing to do in Niagara!

The whole crew loving their time in Niagara.

Kai flying by the falls.

Jordan looking focused on the exceptional view.

Click here to check out more blogs by Zoe Ross.

Visit Niagara Helicopters.

It’s our last day in Canada and im just getting around to writing a blog. School has been amazing and the kayaking is MUY EPICO! I always expected the best part of this school to be paddling everyday. In reality, the paddling has been one of the last things on my mind. The best part of this school has been simply, the people I’ve been living with.

Jacob/canada is the one of my 2 roomies and lives directly underneath me, he’s one of my favorite people to be around and is working hard to teach me how to speak canadian. eh

Alex, my other roomie, has been one of the funnest classmates and has made life here interesting to say the least. He’s very enjoyable to be around as long as i do leave anything in his space. Ever.

Wayne is my X room mate. The perfect way to describe wayne is goober. He deff finds happiness anywhere and you can never see him without his headphones plugged into his head.

Julia/Juno is deff the coolest girl ever! She isnt the most talkative but always says the coolest things when she does. No matter how many times i call her homeslice se still answers with, whats up home skillet biscuit!

Hunt is deff the country boy of the group and one of the corniest people i’ve ever met. I can always exect a good laugh when seeing him and i dont think he’s worn anything besides shorts no matter how cold it gets.

Hayley was very quiet during the first week of school, on account of her losing her voice right before coming, but shes has tons of energy and makes everyone happy. Besides her being my dance partner and gymnastics teacher she also is the artsy person of the group and is always doodling.

Taylor is another one of my favorite’s. She’s definitely the 2nd most positive person here, after myself ofcourse, and never ceases to surprise me. Just avoid her in the mornings and she will be your best friend.

Jason has been my personal photographer. I wouldnt be able to start my modeling career without him. His quirky one liners always make me laugh and i have yet to see him do anything but smile.

Jordan the poffenburgler has my foosball opponent (who im currently beating 3 to 2) and another favorite. He enjoys boating on his knees and is part of the US freestyle team. Anytime tino hasnt been able to help me with a move jordan has come through with the teachings.

Zoe is probably the most nervous germaphobe at the school. Ill never forget when she punched me for licking the knife we used for peanut butter. She’s the nicest one of us all thinks way to much. She is another one of my favorites and makes car rides great.

Kenzie is literally my oldest friend. We both learned to kayak back at daves summer camp and have been friends ever since. I think my parents actually love her more then they love me. She’s always been one of my favorite people and im so happy i get to hang out with her all semester.

Clay was my summer pen pall and filled me in on what to do and not to do while at school. He’s my fellow senior and good friend. He’s one of those people i will always love to hate and argue with.

Eric is the hat maker of the school. He has taught us all how to make awesome hats and is one of the most interesting people ever. He has the goofiest smile ad best jokes of us all.

The combination of different personalities and some conflicting points of view, normally all about kayaking, makes this school one of the coolest most interesting places anywhere. We deserve our own tv show. Needless to say, school so far has been the best weeks of my life and i cant wait to spend the whole year with all of these amazing people.

The first major grade for photography class this year is to get a face shot of everyone that incorporates all of the new things we learned so far, like the rule of thirds. We will recieve five points for every quality face shot. My goal is to post twenty that way I will recieve all one hundred points, and so that you can meet all twenty people, students and staff, of New River Academy.

David Hughs, founder of New River Academy from Fayetteville, West Virginia. Photo by Zoe Ross

Tino Specht, head coach from Charlemont, Massachushetts. Photo by Zoe Ross

Hunt Jennings from Chattagnooga, Tennessee. Photo by Zoe Ross

Kira Tenney, our English teacher, from Ketchum, Idaho. Photo by Zoe Ross

Kai-wen Pai, the math teacher, from Taiwan. Photo by Zoe Ross

Julia Boland from Raynesford, Montana. Photo by Zoe Ross

Jordan Poffenburger, from the D.C. area. Photo by Zoe Ross

Lorenzo Astorga, our teacher of español, from San Alfanso, Chile

Taylor Cote, from Atlanta Georgia. Photo by Zoe Ross

Jason Terry from Atlanta, Georgia. Photo by Zoe Ross

Jacob Slobodian from Buckhorn, Ontario. Photo by Zoe Ross

Errik Hill from Browning Island, Ontario. Photo by Zoe Ross

Mackenzie Hatcher from Morgantown, West Virginia. Photo by Zoe Ross

Nick Simpson from Beckley, West Virginia. Photo by Zoe Ross

Hayley Stewart from Rye, New York. Photo by Zoe Ross

Clay Whitaker from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Photo by Zoe Ross

Wayne Poulsen from Ketchun, Idaho. Photo by Zoe Ross

For our first assignment in photography we had to shoot face shots of everyone at NRA following a few rules we learned in class. This will also give everyone out there a chance to meet the students and staff of NRA!

Blog and photos by Mackenzie Hatcher

For more of Mackenzie’s photos Click Here

Spanish teacher and assistant kayaking coach, Lorenzo Andrade Astorga, is from San Alfonso, Chile.

Kira Tenney, the english teacher, is from Sun Valley, Idaho.

Clay Whitaker, a senior at NRA from Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Hayley Stuart is a student from Rye, New York.

Hunt Jennings is from Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Student Alex Anderson from the Bay area of California.

Kai-Wen Pai, math teacher from Taiwan.

Taylor Cote, student from Atlanta, Georgia.

Julia Boland, from Raynesford, Montana.

Jason Terry, a student also from Atlanta, Georgia.

Wayne Poulsen from Ketchum, Idaho.

Student from Athens, Tennessee, Zoe Ross.

Errik Hill from Steamboat Springs, Colorado and Ontario, Canada.

Jacob Slobodian from Buckhorn, Ontario.

Nick Simpson is a student from Beckley, West Virginia.

Jordan Poffanberger, a C1er and student at NRA, is from the D.C. area.

Tino Specht, from Charlemont, Massachusetts, is head kayaking coach and a teacher at NRA.

Founder, director, and teacher at New River Academy, David Hughes is from Fayetteville, West Virginia and also lives in Pucon, Chile for part of the year.