Testimonials

“I feel really invigorated and capable!  That’s a really good way of describing how I feel:  I feel really capable, strangely enough.  I’m like, man, I can do stuff!  If under duress, I can make it happen!” —David

“I think it’s amazing, honestly. I mean, I came here with no expectations and had no idea what to expect. But, you know, I had a lot of fun. I learned a lot and I really worked hard. And that’s what we’re here to do is.” –Jon

“I wasn’t quite sure what to expect for the physical aspects. I thought it might be more like a ruck where you have to like, get down and do exercises every five minutes or something like that, and I’m really glad it wasn’t that! I liked how it was kind of exercising to get somewhere.” –Liliah

“I’m hungry. It was fun, though. It was really fun! I think the best part was the part that nobody was really expecting. And like Danny mentioned, we learned about how important it is to stay aware of your surroundings!” –Jon

“I have been looking for a good way to get in shape. And I think Missions and Madness is definitely a good, fun way to get in shape.” –Chris

“This is really good training for real life situations because you’re constantly thinking about hazards ahead of you and around you and making sure your team is together and everyone’s communicating and, you know, working as a unit.” –Chris

“That was a blast. I’m really looking forward to the next one.” –Chris

“I thought it was super fun. I think it’s just what the team needed to, you know, go out and do an exercise like this. A lot of the outings we do are, you know, a little bit more stressful because they’re usually dances or performances. So, yeah, I think this was really great for the team and I think everybody enjoyed it a lot.” –Adrien

“I think it’s super fun. It’s definitely challenging, especially with the heat. But it was really fun working all together, pushing yourself, feeling strong. It was good!” –Liliah

“I learned that, you know, coordinating a lot of people can be difficult sometimes, but, you know, it really your attitude is a lot of, you know, what determines whether you’re successful or not because that, you know, influences your team.” –Adrien

It was a lot of fun. It was really good getting out with the team and getting to explore the community. It was a lot of fun. Our team is great, but we’re rebuilding after COVID and this is a great way to do it. So we have a lot of new members, a lot of people that don’t get a chance to interact with each other outside of the Academy and this was a wonderful chance to do that. –Leila

I really like the Madness. So like some of the stuff in the middle where we had the challenge or the handicap. So trying to figure out different ways to solve the handicap so everyone’s creative ways are going about it. And it was also really fun having different leaders. So normally on the team,
we have one person who’s in charge and getting to see other people step up and take that role is great. –Leila

Today was actually a lot of fun. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I read about boot camp and Dungeons and Dragons. My first thought was, okay, he’s going to do the Major Payne version of The Hunger Games. So I was pleasantly surprised. It was a lot of fun. We have a great team and they were a lot of fun to work with today. –Colleen

It was a really creative team bonding experience that I don’t think
I could have gotten elsewhere. And I sort of want to take it to my workplace, too. I’ll take my engineers everywhere. They get out of their, like, critical thinking like mindset and like have them loosen up a bit compared to their regular daily work. My favorite part was honestly just being in the presence of everyone really, getting to let loose a little bit, get outside of the comfort zone and yeah! –Sarah

It was a ton of fun. It was a good workout and it’s just really fun to do it with a group of people and just be silly. So it’s good. –Carly

I really liked the obstacles we’d have to do between our points, so whether it’d be like carrying someone or kind of switching roles in the running aspect or walking backwards a couple blocks. So I thought that was a really fun kind of twist to the game. –Carly

I think this is a really great team building experience. I think it kind of allows people to just get fun and get silly and kind of get to cooperate and do things together and work together as a team. And I think it’s just a really great way for people to kind of come together and experience something unique. –Carly

I thought it was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed coming to this today. I was really looking forward to it and I was really happy to have this experience. So it was fun. I really like this team and I think that we have a really good team dynamic already, but I’m always looking forward to new experiences to kind of work more together and start to really, you know, function more as a team and not just as not just as friends, but really, really work well together as a team. –Cecily

I need to be better at delegating. I’m just not very good at it.
I don’t have a lot of experience with it. So it was a really good experience
for me to learn that about myself. The running drill, at the very end, everybody started getting extremely creative with how they were getting where they wanted to go. That was really cool. –Cecily

We had a lot of fun. The entire experience was great, just for…
I know it’s been said, but getting the team together, our Lion
Dance team, and letting us practice, just working together in a different way, having fun, no consequence, just out to enjoy each other’s company and learn something about each other and kind of how we work together and experience a beautiful Flagstaff day in the process. It’s pretty great. –Sifu Banks

Allowing other people to step into roles that they don’t often get. And from the aspect of play, again, it’s kind of low consequence. So these people get to be leaders and don’t have to think, Oh my gosh, everybody’s watching me or looking at me. It’s just fun, you know? So, oh, I get to say this, I get to yell Pirate, I get you know, So allowing people to just kind of stretch into that space, I think was was a really beneficial process. –Sifu Banks

There’s something to be said about actually walking and experiencing the place we live and being really in it versus just driving through it. –Sifu Banks

End of the day, you know, you’re out. You’ve been doing push ups and exercises and walking and thinking, because you were staying mentally engaged as well for 2 hours. And all of a sudden we have like one of the more physical things that everybody’s really involved in at the end. And it’s martial arts. It’s everything we do. It’s I know it’s a lot of the purpose of this is then we start having fun, right? So while we’re doing it we might as well skip or jog or run or dance or and all of a sudden everybody is being creative and flowing and and the work isn’t, isn’t work. Yeah, it’s awesome. –Sifu Banks

I enjoyed the teamwork. Just the thought process of having everyone kind of contribute their part to make it a team effort. There’s a lot of thinking on the go, I would say. And I guess it just required a lot of people to extend outside their comfort zone to make sure that they meet the objective. — LTC James Battle

I love the flexibility of the game because it does allow you to make it as hard as you like, or you can make it as easy as you want to. It’s a team building exercise, so a lot of times we talk to each other to try to edge each other on, to say, hey, you might want to look at this point. Some folks have more education about the local area than others. Like, for instance, I’m new here, so I didn’t really know any of the landmarks, but a lot of folks stepped up and helped out. So it was true team building experience. — LTC James Battle

I think with the situational awareness, it kind of builds like memory skills. That also helps with keeping a tab on where you are, what you’re doing, and not just that, but looking at the situational awareness, not just at the objective but along the route as well. — LTC James Battle

Everyone had a different skill set and skill level and we just all came together and we came back safe and sound. So it’s a good experience. — LTC James Battle

So everybody gets to work together. So that makes a big difference just because if you haven’t met people before. But yeah, no, I think it was great. Just because everybody had a role could have a role to play that they wanted to.

When we were sort of winding up through downtown, you know, and all these people were like, What on earth is going on here? I thought that was just that was just kind of hilarious sort of thing. So I really, really enjoyed that part of it.

I had a great time. Yeah, it was beautiful weather. A lot of cool people out here and finding stuff about Flagstaff, even though I’ve lived here a long time. I was like, Who knew that this stuff was here? So I had a great time.

That was different. That was definitely different from what I’d usually thought. And it was a matter of like, what? What am I going to find? But I like the fact that it wasn’t just what you could see. You could be like, What do you hear? Or what was in one of the descriptions of the location perhaps, you know, I felt that was a really good point. You know, that it wasn’t just about what your eyes could see.