For Patrick Bondy, winner of a Rising Star award at this year’s Dalhousie student Impact Awards, it’s all about adventure.
“I think adventure is anything you experience as if for the first time,” he says. “The ‘as if’ is important because I think the connotation around being an ‘adventurer’ is that you have to do something like run away to Peru to do it. I disagree.”
It was this idea of every-day discovery that inspired Patrick’s “Adventure by Bus” project. At its heart, Adventure by Bus, or ABB, is simply the concept of “using public transit to get outside and explore the outdoors,” as he puts it. But since launching the initiative in October, Patrick says it’s become so much more.
“It's really allowed me to connect with a lot of people, and spending time in nature is key to me for living well," says Patrick.
Weekly discoveries
Patrick is a first-year Arts and Social Sciences student in the Environment, Sustainability and Society program, coming to Dalhousie from Kansas City, Missouri. He based the ABB program around English author Alastair Humphreys’ philosophy of “Micro-Adventures”: small trips which get an individual out into the world and break up the mundane nature of the day-to-day. Because of the UPass that full-time students receive with their tuition, the trips are essentially no-charge for most students, and a bus ticket or two at most for others.
Some of the destinations for the group’s hiking trips, which occur weekly during the school year, have included York Redoubt, the Northwest Arm’s Dingle, Frog Pond Park, Micmac Lake, Purcell’s Cove and more. The experience allows students like Patrick and others to get to know the Halifax region and its natural environment.
Even when the weather doesn’t always cooperate, there’s great fun to be had.
“The worst trips are often the best trips,” says Patrick. “We went on a trip to Sambro during Munro Day and it was one or two degrees and raining heavily the whole day. We went on this 20 kilometre hike and it was awful. But in the midst of that terribleness that’s where memories are forged.”
Photo from a recent Adventure by Bus trip to Deadman's Island Park.
It doesn’t necessarily need to be all hardship and struggle though, as most ABB events are much more tranquil in nature, and scheduled to allow for a welcome break from hectic student life.
“A classic two-hour adventure would be to take the #1 bus route out to Dartmouth, out to the commons, and run around for as long as you like, then take the ferry back. It gives you great views of the city and is a very fun time.”
Sustainability in action
Patrick is very keen on studying and exploring sustainability topics, and for him part of the appeal of the Adventure by Bus concept is that all transportation to and from its desintations is by public transit. “It’s empowering to not need a car," he says. "I think it’s a common stereotype that you need a car to get out and experience nature, but in a city like Halifax that’s just not true.”
Adventure by Bus is just one of the reasons cited for Patrick’s “Rising Star” Impact Award, which is an award presented to students outside of their final years of study who’ve quickly demonstrated commitment, leadership, creativity and initiative in student life. He’s been an active member of the Environmental Sustainability Society, including working on its “Wave of Waste” project, and he was a key organizer of the SkilledUp conference on campus which focused on helping students learn sustainability skills.
“Good work is valuable for it’s own sake, but it’s sweet to be recognized for what you do,” says Patrick. He hopes the message his Rising Star award suggests is that students can, and should, think about what they can contribute to their campus and community.
“You can actually make something new,” he says. “I don’t necessarily think that I can change the entire world, but you can legitimately create something that wasn’t there before.”
Want to connect with Adventure by Bus? Visit its Facebook page.
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