"Everybody needs to feel like the things they do matter, at least in some way," she says. "It's not one kid and one boat, bringing the light back--it's all the kids. They all bring the light back, as a community, but they each play a part."

Or it's just something for kids to look forward to in the darkest part of winter. But they do it as a group.

"I like to think of it as an adventure. But hopefully not, like, old-school B-movie alien abduction."