On Tuesday, September 20, 2011, the newest members of the PALS organization went on their retreat to the Park Lane Ranch. PALS is a leadership organization at Jesuit that inducts new members from the junior class every year. These new members are viewed as leaders for their class and are in charge of various community service projects throughout the year. Mr. Paul McDaniel handpicked the applicants and seemed very enthused with his new group. The retreat at the Park Lane Ranch is the first genuine bonding experience that the students face.
The day of this year’s retreat started early, when the group departed from Jesuit at 8:00 am. Most of the kids did not know what to expect from the retreat, other than what they had heard from the prior year’s “pals,” as the members are affectionately labeled. As they, the members of the new class, walked into the door they sat down in a row of chairs, expecting a long lecture.
In came Joe Hudson, founder of the Learning E.D.G.E., a business-consulting firm based in Fort Worth. He made the PowerPoint exciting and taught the Pals what it means to be a leader, the different kinds of roles for members, and what these members are expected to do when taking on these roles. After Mr. Hudson was done with his enthusiastic PowerPoint he led us on our first activity.
The first activity involved being blindfolded and walking through the ranch next to a fellow pal. The catch was that we were not allowed to talk. Only hand claps and touching could be used to communicate with our pal. This particular exercise showed everyone the importance of good communication and trust. Dan Morris, skeptical at first, enjoyed the activity, saying, “I was scared at first, but my partner had a strong grip on me and it made me feel safe and comfortable.”
After the first activity the group was split in two, team Golden Child and team Friendship Cobra. Team Golden Child started off with the Texas luge, in which five people put each of their feet onto two separate boards and tried to move themselves 20 yards without falling. This exercise seemed hard at the beginning, but Team Golden Child 
ended up breaking the organization’s “Olympic record” by about 30 seconds. On that record-breaking team were Joe Payne, Ryan Sapp, Connor Gleam, Devin Brown, and John Berend. Both Ryan Sapp and I won medals for being team leaders in this event.
The Friendship Cobras attempted this exercise next; they also performed very well but could not beat the record set by team Golden Child. Golden Child team captain Ryan Sapp was very enthusiastic about this event saying, “The Texas luge helped me see that everything I do in life is a team effort. One person could not have set this record; we did it as a team.”
The next event was an odd one: its objective was to walk a “cow” up a hill and walk her back down without having her touch the ground. The cow, Bertha, was two wooden poles nailed together with a cow stuffed animal on top. Strings were attached to the side of Bertha and the teams used those to drag her up the hill.
The point of this exercise was to think outside the box; some loose rules were given, making it possible for a team to easily go up and down the hill in a short amount of time. Team Friendship Cobras realized this and finished with a better time than the Golden Children, but both teams were very close to breaking another record.
The next two activities happened inside and involved even more teamwork than before. The teams faired very differently on these two events, as opposed to being about equal on the first 2. The first event involved getting across a bridge of bandanas that stretched about 20 feet. The trick was that two feet must be on a bandana at all times or it is taken up.
Team Golden Child tried and succeeded in breaking the Olympic record by an astonishing 2 minutes. Team Friendship Cobras never understood how to do the challenge, so they finished with a decent time. Connor Gleam ’13 was awarded a medal for his leadership in this challenge. Joe Payne said afterwards, “We continue to show excellent leadership and team unity and that is why we have been doing so well in the challenges, not because of our athletic superiority, but because of our togetherness.
The next challenge went very well for the Friendship Cobras but not for team Golden Child. The challenge was to pick up a tennis ball off a cone and run it back to another cone. The trick was that we had to pick up the ball using a ring with some strings attached, making the task very difficult. The Friendship Cobras ended with 11 points while Team Golden Child finished with just 4. This was the last activity, and the Friendship Cobras showed lots of teamwork on it: Dan Keenan said later, “Friendship Cobras’s display of excellent teamwork is what led us to accumulate so many points. It was a lot of fun.”
After the day’s activities the Pals headed back on the bus toward Jesuit, still beaming with satisfaction over the pals’ leadership accomplishments. Christian Banister said, “Today not only let me get to know my Jesuit brothers better, but it also gave me a better understanding of what being a leader is all about. I am excited about the upcoming school year with PALS.” The head of the Pals organization, Paul McDaniel, also a junior counselor, seemed happy, remarking, “Today is always a fun day for the guys, but it is also educational and lets the members learn more about each other and their strengths.” The next week at the Pals meeting McDaniel complimented everyone on their leadership and winning attitudes they maintained all day.
