News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sisters eighth graders learn winter survival skills. photo by Kathy Mansker
Sisters eighth graders headed to the snowy slopes of Hoodoo Ski Area on Friday, January 30, for a winter retreat.
About 100 students learned to build snow caves, participated in team-building exercises, tried Nordic skiing or snowshoeing and talked about integrating personal goals into a broader vision. It's all part of an effort to build camaraderie and leadership in the class.
According to Principal Lora Nordquist, the event marks a change in the traditional eighth grade retreat program, which has been in place since the middle school first gained its own space and identity nearly a decade ago.
For years, the retreat was an intensive, three-day event held in the fall. According to Nordquist, the beneficial effects of the retreat tended to wear off over the course of a long school year.
So this year the retreat was restructured to allow one day in each trimester in the hopes that the lessons of leadership and group bonding would last through the year.
Nordquist believes the retreats help break down the barriers kids often throw up to divide themselves into social cliques. It seems to have made a difference to the current eighth grade class.
"When they were in sixth grade they were a pretty 'clique-ey' group," Nordquist said.
They are less so now, though that may be attributable to a simple growth in maturity.
Nordquist was quick to praise the support of Hoodoo, which offered facility use at no charge, and to a dozen parent and community volunteers who made the event possible.
The volunteers helped organize small groups, hauled equipment up to the mountain and generally wore themselves out over the course of an 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. day.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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