Airway Heights officers want to end generational jailing, trauma through Police Adventure League camp intervention

The Police Adventure League provides a unique opportunity for students at Cheney middle and high schools to learn from fun, with experiences like white-water rafting, rock climbing, hiking Mt. Spokane and paddle-boarding the Little Spokane River.

This program was Airway Heights police Officer Patrick Carbaugh’s unfulfilled dream for 14 years, but it wasn’t until recently that he was able to make it a reality.

Carbaugh is a youth engagement specialist, or a YES officer, at the Cheney School District, and the heart and brain behind the Police Adventure League. Before he became an officer, Carbaugh worked at the Airway Heights Correction Center for eight years, and he witnessed an unfortunately common problem.

“I would watch three generations of a family go in and out of jail: the grandpa, the father and the son, or the grandma, the mother and the daughter,” Carbaugh said. “It broke my heart knowing that statistically, the kids will follow their family’s footsteps unless there’s some kind of intervention.”

The Police Adventure League, or PAL, was designed to be just that: an intervention. But instead of telling the students everything they’ve done wrong or telling them they need to shape up or suffer the consequences, Carbaugh thought of a different way to help students change course.

PAL is a joint effort between Airway Heights and Peak 7 Adventures and has quickly grown over the past couple years.

What began in summer 2022 as a six-week session with only nine students has expanded to two four-week sessions this summer with 18 students.

Carbaugh works with the first session, PAL A, which started on June 28. Officer Brad King, another officer at Airway Heights Police Department, works with the second session, PAL B, which begins July 29.

Each session does similar activities and spends the first week of the session learning about adventure safety, like using new equipment and learning the basics of rock climbing, which some students enjoy.

“Oh, I love being outdoors,” said Aiden Jackson, a student and program veteran.

Jacksons’ favorite activity is rock climbing and his favorite part about it is, “everything.”

“I just like actually being able to get on the rocks, just being up there, and when you’re up there you get to overlook everything,” Jackson said. “But you have to have a lot of trust in your rope and in the person who’s belaying you.”

Besides safety, another key aspect of the program is letting the students choose their core values for the session.

On the first day of the session, there are 40 different words on flash cards laid out on the ground in front of them. As a group, they have to choose four core values they all want to focus on together.

“Throughout our four-week program, we’re trying to build on those values,’ Carbaugh said. “Ask them, ‘What does that look like in your life? What does it look like in this program? How do we maintain these values?’ ”

This year, PAL A chose responsibility, strength, family and trust. Each value is interwoven into the activities the group does.

Carbaugh explains how trust plays a large part in rock climbing.

“While you have your friend belaying you down below, you need to have trust in him that he won’t drop you and hurt you,” Carbaugh said. “One of the kids early on said that ‘I’m not going to trust that kid with my life in their hands.’ And I said, ‘Well, through the program, maybe you’ll build that trust.’ Now, he is one of our lead rock climbers in our group currently, and he’s nonstop on the wall with somebody belaying him.”

On Monday of their first week, the students went to Couer Climb in Post Falls. Tuesday, they went kayaking on the Spokane River followed by a night of camping. By Friday, they spent the day rafting on the Clark Fork River.

“Activities for the program are really structured around giving the boys opportunities to try things that they never maybe had a chance to attempt,” said Jenny Weddle, the operations director for Peak 7. “We really try to find a variety of activities, so it always keeps them guessing and gives them something new and challenging to look forward to.”

With the help of Carbaugh, King and the guides at Peak 7, these students can focus on themselves and strive for personal growth.

“It’s really fun to provide an experience for these kids to learn and to grow and to ultimately become a better version of themselves,” said Carson Woods, a Peak 7 Adventure guide working with the students this summer.

The students report a noticeable change in themselves, like program veteran and student Braiden Tauanuu.

“It’s improved a lot actually, because during school I was leading down a bad path, up until Pat (Carbaugh) led me into the program,” Tauanuu said. “Then it led my life to a different path where I could develop more and do more.”

Jackson also noticed a change in himself.

“PAL has made me more curious about what to do with life as I get older, like what my future plans are,” Jackson said. “And it’s also helped me get outdoors more.”

Carbaugh has noticed a difference, too.

“The adults and the teachers and the counselors have all said that the PAL program has been working amazingly as well and the parents say the same thing,” the officer said.

Although it was difficult at first for everyone to build connections, the program helped students open up.

“On the first day, the kids were silent with one another. They didn’t talk, they didn’t really engage or participate, and you could tell there was a lot of uncertainty and apprehension,” Woods said. “It’s been fun to watch these kids go from that stage to beginning to really interact with each other.

“Now they push each other and motivate each other and say, ‘Hey, let’s go do this,’ or ‘You got this, I believe in you,’ and just instilling these values of trust in each other.”

To find the students that would most benefit from the program, Carbaugh and King partner with school counselors at Cheney School District.

“Right now, we’re targeting males between the ages of about 13 to 17,” Carbaugh said, “If they’re interested, then we reach out to parents, tell them about the program, and then get them signed up.”

Currently, Carbaugh and King are only guiding male students through the program, but they hope to expand the program to female students when they find an interested full-time female officer.

“What we do have currently is we have a one-week backpacking trip that Peak 7 takes them on with a female officer,” Carbaugh said.

This year, Peak 7 guides and Airway Heights police Officer Kayla Frank will be taking the female students to the Ozette Triangle in the Olympic National Forest for their one-week trip.

During the school year, students can go on rock climbing and hiking trips, which are open to everybody. On these trips, the officers typically take the first 40 students that sign up.

Each trip that students go on, in the PAL program or during the school year, is free to the students and the community thanks to funding from local companies and community members, like the Airway Heights Grants and Community Initiatives Director, Alise Mnati.

“Without her there is no way that this program would be in existence,” Carbaugh said.

It may be Mnati’s job to write these grants, but she goes above and beyond to fund the PAL program.

“I think that my grind, my hustle comes from knowing it’s going to benefit children,” Mnati said.

She’s also working on projects to find funding for other children’s resources in her area due to the disparities she’s noticed for children between Spokane and Airway Heights.

“I used to live in Medical Lake for four years, and there’s not really a lot of resources for children out there,” Mnati said. “You could go on and on about all the different things we have in Spokane, but in the West Plains, there’s nothing for children. So, I think it’s even more important that we have the Police Adventure League.”

Carbaugh and Peak 7’s Weddle expressed their desires to expand the program to other school districts, but without more support from local businesses in the West Plains, it’s going to be a challenge.

“I’ve mainly reached out to local businesses in Airway Heights, and now I’m trying to broaden that,” Carbaugh said. “The Dealers Auto Auction, Wolfies, Dairy Queen, Walmart, Billy’s Diner, Grocery Outlet, have all been resources for us, but outside of that it’s been really sparse, so we need to get the community to buy in.”

“Before it was just me knocking on doors saying, ‘Hey this is what we’re doing’ … ” Carbaugh said. “Some businesses would say, ‘Yeah, we can get you a couple hundred bucks,’ but each kid is about $3,000 to be in our summer program, and right now we have 20 kids going through it.”

But no one is giving up anytime soon.

“I think when you have something this special, it’s important to try to spread that around and share the love with other communities,” Weddle said. “We’re trying to show the boys that they have the capacity within themselves to be more, to do more. It’s just a matter of showing them that their potential is there and that we want to nurture it.”