Seventh-graders at FFMHS participate in river excursion
FORT FAIRFIELD — Those driving across the Aroostook River bridge in Fort Fairfield around 11 a.m. Aug. 30 may have been surprised to see a flotilla of 14 canoes and 16 kayaks paddling down the river. The group of 36 students and 14 adult chaperones from Fort Fairfield Middle High School was completing the school’s 10th annual Aroostook River trip.
Contributed photos/Paul Lamoreau
AROOSTOOK RIVER TRIP — Fort Fairfield seventh-grade students drag their crafts out of the Aroostook River and come to shore after completing their six-mile trip Aug. 30. The trip was the 10th annual for the Fort Fairfield Middle High School students.
RIVER TRIP PARTICIPANTS — These Fort Fairfield seventh-grade students and chaperones took a six-mile trip on the Aroostook River Aug. 30. The trip was the 10th annual for the Fort Fairfield Middle High School students and serves as a “kickoff” to the Maine Studies unit.
“The river trip is our kick-off event to the Maine studies unit that we do in seventh grade,” said teacher Paul Lamoreau. “We think it’s a great way to start off the year, and a lot of these kids haven’t had much experience being on a river, which of course is how the native people, and early explorers and settlers got around.”
The trip begins at Forbes Landing on the Caribou-Fort Fairfield town line, and ends at the town’s public boating landing, a distance of about six miles.
This year’s edition of the trip had some of the best conditions ever experienced, according to Lamoreau.
“The temperature was perfect, the skies were clear and calm, and the water level was close to ideal,” he said, adding that a few participants had a little more intimate contact with the water than they would have liked. “With novice paddlers, you are going to have a few flips, but we do water safety training and everybody has a properly-fitting life jacket. Plus we have some experienced people that are there to assist anyone that needs help.”
The trip originated in September of 2004 after a group of the school’s seventh-grade teachers returned from a summer Middle Level Institute at the University of Maine at Orono. They decided they wanted to do some kind of team-building activity to start the year.
“Adolescence is a very unique age group, and we wanted to do something active that would get their attention and get them working together,” Lamoreau said. “With rivers being such an important part of the history of many Maine cities and towns, it seemed a natural fit.”
Lamoreau added the trip would not be possible if not for the assistance of the parents and volunteers from the community. He likes to have a ratio of three students to one adult chaperone, so the need for volunteers and water craft is significant.
“People is this town have always been very supportive of our school’s activities, and that is what makes this trip happen,” said Lamoreau. “A number of our staff and community members like nothing better than paddling down a river, so the adults enjoy it as much or more than the students.”
The first couple of years they recruited people to donate their canoes, kayaks, life jackets and paddles for the trip, including a local Old Town canoe dealer and the University of Maine at Presque Isle. After that, Lamoreau said, the school and the town of Fort Fairfield formed a partnership with the 21st Century program and purchased a number of canoes and kayaks for students to use.
“By the fourth or fifth year, we had 10 canoes and a dozen kayaks available to the school through this program, which really cut down on the amount of scrambling around,” he said. “But it’s still the people in town and the staff here at school that keeps this thing going.”
