East Grand starts Adventure Class

    East Grand School is stepping up its efforts to connect kids to the outdoors. It’s offering an Adventure Class for eighth-graders, for the first time this year. 
    The class is designed to help students develop leadership skills through outdoor adventure. The class meets every day for an hour. Students will be introduced to a number of outdoor skills, such as canoeing, canoe racing, map and compass, fishing, hiking, snow shoeing, cross country skiing, biking, outdoor cooking, dehydrating, photography, among others. 
    Students will also interact with a number of professionals throughout the year, as well as embark on a number of local adventures within the “city limits,” in order to expose the students to the myriad of adventures waiting in their own back yard. Students also hope to raise the funds to explore other parts of their beautiful state. 
Photograph courtesy of Dave Conley
FIRST STUDENTS — The first students of the Adventure Class for eighth-graders at East Grand School are, from left to right, front, Tammi Matula, Bethany Lindsey, Kimmy Bauchman, Kimberly Stoddard, Samantha Gilman and Gage Casey; back, Holly Dicker, Bruce Doughty, Jeremy Durost, Rick Benoit and Principal Billy Apgar.
    Students are graded on participation, hands-on and written tests, and community involvement. Each quarter, students are responsible to volunteer for community service opportunities, primarily through the school’s After-School Program and the school’s recess period. This allows students to pass on their new found skills to grade school students, and feel the impact that they can have for good, when they give back to their community.  
    The most challenging part of offering this type of class for most schools is equipment, as well as community and administrative support. Fortunately, East Grand is blessed with all three. The high school’s Outdoor Education Program, under the leadership of Dave Conley and Jeremy Durost, has not only developed a tremendous inventory of outdoor equipment, but its reputation for excellence and its undeniably positive presence within the community, have been the catalyst for developing strong support from the community and from school administration.  
    The Outdoor Education Class has been generous both in sharing equipment and its expertise. This collaboration has made the development of such a class, relatively seamless and a very natural “next step” in an effort to get our kids outside.