Leadership - The 33 Miners
| Category: | Leadership |
|---|---|
| Props: | A spoon, a small cracker and a cup with a sip of milk in it (optional) |
| Notes: | A true story. On August 5, 2010, the San José copper and gold mine in Chile collapsed, trapping 33 miners about 2,300 feet underground. They were rescued 69 days later. Good for a leadership training, a patrol leaders' council, or any meeting about teamwork. |
On August 5th, 2010, deep in the desert of northern Chile, thirty-three men were working in a copper and gold mine called San José. They were about twenty-three hundred feet underground. That's almost half a mile straight down.
And then the mountain collapsed. A block of rock as big as a skyscraper broke loose and sealed off the tunnel. The thirty-three men were trapped.
When the dust cleared, they made their way to a small emergency shelter. It was hot, about ninety degrees, and it was humid, and it was dark. In the shelter there was some water, and a cabinet of emergency food. It was meant to feed ten men for two days.
Up on the surface, nobody knew if anybody down there was alive.
The shift leader was a man named Luis Urzúa. He was quiet, not a big talker. But he knew that if the men panicked, or started fighting over the food, they'd all die.
So he made a plan. He counted every bit of food. And he set a rule: every forty-eight hours, every man would get two small spoonfuls of canned tuna, a sip of milk, and a cracker. That's it. Every two days. Everybody got exactly the same, no matter who you were.
He gave everyone a job. Some men kept watch on the tunnels. Some kept the shelter clean. Some looked after the men who got sick. He made a map of the mine. They voted on big decisions, one man, one vote. One of the miners, who knew some first aid, became the doctor. One of them led prayers. They took turns. They kept each other going.
For seventeen days, nobody knew they were alive. They lost a lot of weight. They got weak. Some days, they didn't think anybody was coming. But they stuck to the plan, and they stuck together.
On the seventeenth day, a drill broke through the rock above them. The miners taped a note to the end of it. When the drill was pulled back up, the whole world read it: "Estamos bien en el refugio los 33." We are fine in the shelter, the 33.
It took another fifty-two days to drill a tunnel wide enough to get them out. On October 13th, 2010, they were pulled up one by one, in a narrow steel capsule, through half a mile of rock. About a billion people around the world watched on TV.
All thirty-three came out alive. And the last man to come up, after every single one of his men was safe, was the shift leader, Luis Urzúa.
Now, think about that leadership. He didn't have a fancy title. He wasn't the strongest or the loudest. What did he do? He made a plan. He made sure everybody was treated fairly. He gave everybody a job. He let everybody have a say. And he made sure he was the last one out.
That's a patrol leader's job too. You may never be trapped in a mine. But someday, on a campout, when it's raining and the food's running low and people are tired and grumpy, you'll be in charge. Remember the 33. Fair shares. A job for everyone. A voice for everyone. And the leader goes last.