Elaina began programs with PNW over seven years ago and recently gave the following speech to a full crowd at the PNW Courage Benefit in March, 2005.

Hello and good evening. My name is Elaina Overland and this is my mentor Jeanna Ozyck. Tonight we will be sharing our experiences with Passages Northwest and how it has changed our lives.

First I would like to tell you about my background. I was born in Romania in 1986. I lived in an orphanage until I was 4 when an American family adopted me and brought me to America, July 4th, 1990.

For five years I lived with that family. It was hard. I had been abused in the orphanage and had some issues that were very difficult for my family to deal with. When I was nine I started another journey from emergency care home to a hospital to residential facility before I arrived at Ryther Child Center, a group home in Seattle where I lived for three years. In 1999 I joined my foster family, the Georgius, where I still live today.

When I was living at Ryther I became shy, quiet, and tended to isolate myself from other kids. I was scared to tell anyone that I lived in a group home. Would they judge me because I didn’t have a “family”? Would they like me if I was different?

At Ryther I met Jeanna who was a member of the staff there. She introduced me to and mentored me through Girls Rock since I was interested in rock climbing, but also to help me get over my fear of making friends.

Slowly, I became brave and started to have enough courage to care less about other’s thoughts. As I talked about my life with the girls I talked about “staff” instead of moms and dads and sisters and brothers. Finally I got brave enough to tell some of the other girls that I lived in a group home. Even after I told them they still respected me. These girls have given me respect for who I am. I realized that living in a group home didn’t make my personality different from theirs. We were all middle school girls.

I completed Girls Rock in November of 1997. Girls Rock opened a door for me.

After I finished Girls Rock I started doing more programs with Passages. Every time I went on a trip my goal was not just to become better in my climbing, kayaking, backpacking, or camp skills but to become better in expressing my feelings to other girls my age. I wanted to be able to talk with the girls.

There have been times when this was challenging was on a Leadership course. There was one girl who was very challenging for me to talk to and interact with. As the course went on I learned to be patient, a good listener and to not be judgmental towards others.

Passages has changed my life. Because of my time with passages I have stopped isolating myself from other girls and peers. I am working on being a good leader. I am more appreciative of the things and people around me. I have courage in myself to share my feelings with girls on course and am willing to take on the new challenges that they offer me.

Passages has always been there for me. They have helped me with gear for my courses and supported me with many scholarships. They have helped me to become braver to try new courses outside of or partnered with Passages. I have done a 31 day backpacking trip with the National Outdoor Leadership School and a 22 day backpacking course with Outward Bound Pinnacle Program.

Climbing Mt. Rainer has been the most important to me. I have climbed Rainer twice. The first time I was not able to summit. It was too hard. I told myself that I wouldn’t give up. In 2004 I decided that I would try Rainer again but this time another Passages alumnus, Mattie, would be there for me as well as the rest of the team. The Rainer climbs were fund raisers for Passages. I did these trips because I wanted to try something new but also because I wanted to give something back to Passages.

My future has a lot of possibilities. I plan to go to college and study Psychology. I have been through a lot and would like to help other kids through leading the same kinds of outdoor programs that have helped me. I plan to do some internships with Passages and eventually be an instructor.

Passages has been a big part of my life. It feels like they have been my family. They have been there for me through the good and bad times. They have helped me in my life to grow up and share the good things about life. Without Passages it would have been harder for me to become courageous, friendly, honest and appreciate the people around me. Without your support of Passages I would have not been able to have had this amazing experience in my life. I appreciate how much people’s generosity has provided for me.