When we officially heard from the Ontario government that no one would be going back to school this year, our adolescents responded with mixed emotions. Though they were relieved to finally have some certainty, they had all hoped—like we did—that we’d be together again in June. As an adolescent programme matures, traditions and rituals become unifying opportunities for the community. They’re events that help each year of adolescents connect to each other and feel a part of the history of the programme. As I spoke with the adolescents in my advisory, they talked about missing out on all the traditions which mark the end of our year together. One of the saddest pieces of ending the school year apart was not being able to go on our final Odyssey, biking through Ontario’s Prince Edward County. After hearing the comment being made in Zoom meeting after Zoom meeting, we decided surely we could still make the Odyssey happen.

Over the course of two weeks, staff and students met to find a way to still honour the spirit of the Odyssey—physical challenge, community, and service—in another way.  We came up with the first (and hopefully only) Strata Virtual Odyssey! From June 8th - June 15th the Strata Community embarked on a collective effort to bike, walk, run, skate, or swim the more than 7,000 kilometres we would have ridden on the Bike Odyssey.

To help organize our planning, the adolescents chose to be in one of four groups inspired by the members of a competitive cycling team.

1. The Domestiques were in charge of raising awareness and keeping people motivated. They posted videos to the GoogleClassroom, organized group rides that respected physical distance regulations and even devised a conversion table for those choosing a method of transportation other than biking to calculate their kilometer totals. Others from the group wrote motivational notes to each of their peers and delivered them during the week. Possibly their most successful idea was their method for participants to track their progress. They broke the 180 km personal goal into colour coded segments red for the first 25km, yellow for 25-50, green for 50-70 and so on. Each adolescent was encouraged to change their profile picture in GoogleClassroom to show how far they had gone. Such a simple but effective way of making everyone feel a part of the endeavour.

2. The Mechanics got involved in the logistics of the Odyssey. They researched apps people could use to map their rides and posted video tutorials to help other students learn to use them. Others researched trail systems and safe-cycling routes in the different cities and towns in which students lived. Members of this group also became the bike maintenance and safe-riding experts, sharing resources to troubleshoot common cycling problems and bike safety and etiquette.

3. The Soigneurs focused on the social events that typically happen during the evening on Odyssey. Four events were planned: a games night, a camp out with star gazing, a cookout and a final campfire. Each of these events was programmed by the adolescents complete with advertisements , instructions and options for different ways students could participate. For example, they encouraged participation in the camp out at the comfort level of each adolescent, suggesting building a blanket fort indoors, pitching a tent in their backyard, or building a shelter out of natural materials. Because it can get lonely roasting a marshmallow by yourself, they sent our Zoom invites and encouraged families to participate with their adolescents to give these events more of a community feel.

4. The Sponsorship team was responsible for picking a charity and creating the system for submitting pledges. They researched local charities and debated the pros and cons of each before deciding to partner with the Salvation Army. They created a pledge sheet and established a GoFundMe page so sponsors could directly donate during this time of isolation. When other students questioned the choice of selecting the Salvation Army, given reports of an anti-LGBTQ+ stance, they had to do further research to dialogue with their peers about the choice. It was an unexpected but powerful learning opportunity!

This weeklong endeavour was a chance for students to get outdoors, be active, raise money for charity and make some memories. Ultimately, the Strata Community “biked” over 3000 km and raised over $2500 dollars for the Salvation Army. Though we did not meet our target goal, we did have 100% participation and managed to successfully come together as a community. When we think about remote learning, so often we jump to using technology to maintain academic expectations. What our experience shows is that technology can also support one of the key needs of adolescents, to feel part of a community of their peers. By capitalizing on the strength of adolescents to think creatively in novel situations and push beyond the status quo we were able to re-imagine our traditional Odyssey to still provide a rich experience in a new reality.