The Boys with the Boat, Kevin, Han, Benamin Rhodes-Kropf, David Rule, Justin Chen, Sebastian Romero, Benjamin Siegel.
Big Sandy High School students were regaled by the popular Instagram group, "Boys with a Bus" and YouTube David Rule in a special assembly on Monday morning, October 14th. Their presentation followed the successful completion of a 5-day river rafting adventure on the part of the 6 young men over the preceding 5 days. The group consists of recent high school graduates are taking a "gap year" before attending mostly Ivy League schools next fall. They designed and built a three-story tall river raft, which they used to travel 100 miles following the path of Louis and Clark, as well as the legacy of literary characters like Huckleberry Finn.
Superintendent Dan Schrock met the "Boys with a Boat" on the Missouri when his own boat became lodged in some submerged rocks. The young men happened along in their unusual vessel and helped the stranded educator free himself. They then camped together, shared a meal, and enjoyed the Northern Lights. "I rarely, if ever, see another soul while I'm out on the Missouri River Breaks. All things considered, I'm so thankful that I did. Shortly after we began talking, they told me of their adventure. It struck me then and there that our students would benefit greatly in hearing their story." Dan described it as, "A genuine and personal story of adventure that is rich in both challenges and opportunities, much like life. A story that required growth and a mindset to take each day and make the very best of it, no matter the circumstances going against them."
The boys constructed the 7000-pound vessel on the shore of the river, with materials they purchased from Home Depot for $7,000, proceeds from their Instagram channel earnings. The three story craft came complete with a crow's nest, sealed off sleeping quarters, a living room area, and a kitchen. The students' harrowing tale of their adventure trip included moments of frustration and failure, including a "failure to launch" moment when their test run with using poles to steer and propel the boat while safely tethered to shore turned into a disaster. The six young men laughed and joked as they recounted their boat hitting submerged rocks, which sent the "float barrels" ripping up through the floorboards and nearly sank the raft.
The journey to the shores of the Missouri River began with a senior project at Milton Academy, a Boarding School in Massachusetts. Kevin Han, one of the boys, recounted the beginnings of their adventures together. "Our high school actually does a thing called a senior project. The last month of our senior year, we do a project. It is anything we want, as long as we get it approved by the school. A lot of our friends chose to do films, research
papers, building drones, learning instruments, and we had the brilliant idea of building a bus." Kevin explained that the goal was to simply build a travel bus and go on a cross country road trip. "But then we started documenting everything and putting it out on social media and just overnight ,blew up. I think one morning we were at 800 followers, and I woke up the next morning we were like 200,000 followers. It was insane." That was six months ago. Today the young men had drawn 2.4 million followers to their Instagram account.
The young men agreed to invest additional time and effort into their Instagram venture by taking a year off between high school and college to embark on a series of adventures, which they would document online, beginning with the construction of the boat. Benjamin Rhodes-Kropf, one of the young men who is heading to MIT next year, designed the boat based on research he did online, referencing others who took on similar projects. David Rule, who has a degree in Neuroscience from the University of Wyoming, but makes a living running a YouTube channel constructing tiny houses and other projects, joined the young men in the venture and heavily influenced the construction portions of the project.
Dan described the boys' presentation as, "A story that required growth and a mindset to take each day and make the very best of it, no matter the circumstances going against them. When they wrapped up their presentation they asked our students, 'How much chaos can you take and still move forward?' or as they aptly described some of their experiences, 'failing forward.'"
After the presentation, Big Sandy's students asked quite a few questions as well as taking time to visit the increasingly famous bus and get their picture taken with the young men in the parking lot.
Dan, who spoke glowingly of the young men, shared all of Big Sandy High School's sentiments for the young men who took the time to visit our students: "I wish the boys and David my very best, and thank them for sharing their adventure with myself and our students. I doubt that we will soon forget their story and their authenticity."
In the coming weeks, the Mountaineer will feature additional articles detailing the Boys with a Bus Missouri River Adventure. You can also see the photos and videos they post documenting their trip at boys.with.the.bus on Instagram. David Rule's YouTube account is @davidmrule.
