The latest news about Maine lakes and ponds.

Adventure Program Extends into Winter

January 05, 2010 - PORTLAND -- About 40 middle school students will learn how to snowshoe on the Appalachian Trail, build snow huts near Saddleback Mountain and generally survive in the Maine woods this winter.

Rippleffect, an adventure-oriented leadership program based on Cow Island in Casco Bay, is expanding beyond kayaking and camping under the stars to provide year-round educational opportunities.

The first to benefit from the new winter program will be seventh- and eighth-graders from Portland's Lincoln and Lyman Moore middle schools. Students nominated for the grant-funded program face academic and socioeconomic challenges and show leadership potential.

"Some of these kids have never been outside the Portland area," said Anna Marie Klein-Christie, executive director of Rippleffect. "This is an extraordinary opportunity that's meant to give them tools to live healthy lives and build on their capacity to lead."

The program will start in January, when the students will attend weekly after-school training sessions to learn various winter camping skills, from ice fishing and cooking on camp stoves to using a compass and recognizing animal tracks.

"It's an active universe out there at this time of year," Klein-Christie said. "It's not just a big pile of snow."

The students will go camping during school vacation in February, when they will spend four days on the Appalachian Trail near Rangeley. Rippleffect will provide trained guides, appropriate clothing and equipment.

"They will learn to depend on each other and work together as a team in very challenging circumstances," said Lee Crocker, principal of Lyman Moore Middle School. "They may learn they have skills that they didn't even know they had."

After the camping trip, weekly after-school sessions will continue with lessons on indoor gardening, composting and contemporary environmental issues such as wind and solar power generation.

The winter program will conclude with a five-day camping trip to Cow Island during school vacation in April. Students will learn how to kayak and develop a variety of skills for roughing it on the edge of the Atlantic.

To reinforce the winter program's impact, students will be asked to keep journals during the camping trips and give classroom presentations after they return, Crocker said.

Crocker, who leads Portland's dropout prevention committee, said he's interested to see whether the winter program will have a measurable effect on students' academic and social success. To that end, Rippleffect will track students' grades, attendance and social development before and after the winter program.

"It's important for programs like this to be held accountable," Klein-Christie said.

To fund the new program, Rippleffect received a $50,000 grant from a donor who asked not to be identified. It also received $12,000 in smaller contributions from Oakhurst Dairy, Wright Express and others.

Rippleffect plans to raise an additional $38,000 in the coming months so it can offer the winter program at the two middle schools next year.

One of Portland's three public middle schools will not offer the program. King Middle School follows an expeditionary learning model promoted by Outward Bound that includes similar leadership-building principles.

Rippleffect is developing year-round programs to take full advantage of Maine's outdoor opportunities, Klein-Christie said.

The nonprofit also wants to increase its financial security and ability to retain qualified, professional staff members, which is difficult with seasonal programs, she said.

By KELLEY BOUCHARD, Staff Writer, Portland Press Herald, December 30, 2009


Lakes:
Regions: Sebago, Belgrade, Rangeley, Mid Coast


Print this story

Email this story

return to Lake News