COURTESY KEITH CRADLE

Keith Cradle PhD, founder of Camping with Cradle (right) with Damon Gause (left) and CWC board chair Marc Fuller.

Bundle up for Camping with Cradle’s winter experience.

The nonprofit mentoring program, which uses the outdoors to teach youth life skills, received its first grant from the city of Charlotte – $1,000 from the JumpStart Community Safety Micro-Grant Project to create a winter camping experience. The grant funds small programing grants to community-based organizations addressing conflict resolution and mediation, crime fighting and prevention, family stability and racial disparities.

Funding must be used by Dec. 31 and recipients also receive support and capacity building training through the city and its affiliates.

The 12-person trip will take place the first weekend in December at Hanging Rock State Park. Trips have been designed around car camping, backpacking and now a cabin-stay experience. Founder and executive director Keith Cradle PhD said North Carolina’s weather allows for camping year-round depending on the type of experience people want. He wanted to create a winter experience to show kids they can still enjoy the outdoors even when the temperature changes.

As Cradle spent more time exploring North Carolina’s state parks last year, he wanted to share what the outdoors had to offer with marginalized youth. Camping with Cradle kicked off in June, leading four boys ages 12-14 through Morrow Mountain State Park. The first year of Camping with Cradle is going better than expected. The intention had been to launch in the summer of 2021 or 2022, pandemic permitting.

Five trips have taken place, and Cradle remembers thinking just one or two would be a victory. Now he questions if he is doing enough.

“You’re thinking, ‘I’ll do a couple,’” said Cradle, who is director of youth/juvenile services for the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office by day. “You get one under the belt and you’re like, ‘oh my God.’ Then you just keep doing it. Now it starts to feel like ‘am I doing enough?’ Maybe that’s the worker bee in me. Everybody tells me I’m exactly where we need to be and not to overextend myself too fast. That is the challenge I have for myself.”

Cradle hopes winter camping will serve as a bookend for the program, with future Camping with Cradle calendars running April/May through December.

“This year was so trial and error with a lot of effort, but it happened so organically and pretty quickly,” he said. “I’m not only surprised, but I also believe in the power of our community and if you put in the work and you have good people supporting you, it just happens.”

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