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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Wilderness Inquiry brings its mission to Lake Vermilion

Classrooms on the water

Posted

LAKE VERMILION- When are canoes more than canoes? When they are part of Wilderness Inquiry’s (WI) Canoemobile program. The canoes, they note, are more than just canoes. They are “friend ships” that promote “can-do-ing.”

The brightly-decorated van pulling six 24-foot Voyageur style canoes spent two days on Lake Vermilion, working with students from Tower-Soudan Elementary and the Vermilion Boys and Girls Club.

“We think of these as floating classrooms,” said WI educator Cory Dack, who has spent the last two years with WI’s canoe-outreach program. The group of seven staffers is set to travel to Bemidji, and then is headed out east to Boston, Philadelphia, and then down south, to teach inner city and rural youth about canoeing, lake ecology, teamwork, and cultural history.

Elementary students spent time on shore learning canoe safety and paddling techniques, then boarded the large canoes for a paddle out on the lake, where they practiced paddling, turning, and then safely disembarking from the canoes.

Tower-Soudan first-graders, clad in brightly colored life jackets, raised their paddles high overhead as they coasted back to shore, after successfully navigating the waters by McKinley Park Campground.

On shore, students played nature-related games, learned about Voyageur history, took a nature hike, tried out water quality testing, and learned about the larger invertebrates that live in the lake.

Staff from the U. S. Forest Service helped with the on-land activities. Dack said they often pair up with a partner when hosting such events.

Many of the Tower-Soudan students had never been out in a canoe, and even for those who had, the day was exciting.

WI staff camped at McKinley Park while in the area. The travelling groups camp whenever possible, Dack said, though that often isn’t possible when in large urban areas.

As part of the program, they also talk with the students about careers relating to the outdoors and environment.

Wilderness Inquiry’s mission is to connect people from all walks of life to the natural world through shared outdoor adventures. The group specializes in bringing people of all abilities and ages into the outdoors.

Dack said they try to target their outreach to children who might not otherwise have the opportunity to get out on the water, as well as students from low-income and rural areas. This year, she said, the Twin Cities-based nonprofit was focusing on doing more outreach to outstate Minnesota.

The Tower-Soudan elementary teachers said funding the program was a challenge, but they felt the two-day outdoor adventure was a perfect way to start the new school year and build excitement among the students.

“We didn’t get a field trip budget this year,” they said, “so we used money from the student activity fund, which now needs to be replenished.” The teachers said they are planning more fundraising, but said that any donations to the school’s field trip fund or student activity fund would be greatly appreciated.

Funding received from the Clean Water Land & Legacy Amendment: Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, which helped fund the outreach programs in Minnesota this year, said WI Education Programs Manager Meg Krueger. She said the program came to Tower after a local resident read about an outreach program in Duluth, and then contacted Tower-Soudan Elementary to see if the school would be interested. WI came up to Tower-Soudan and North Woods last spring for some indoor programming, then returned this September. The school was only charged 25 percent of the regular $4,000 fee for the two-day program.

While rural children have a more direct connection to the environment, Kreuger said the large canoes still provide the unique experience of paddling in a large canoe, practicing teamwork, and the experience of camaraderie.

The Canoemobile

The Canoemobile brings classroom learning outside, engaging youth to improve school performance, cultivating a stewardship ethic, and creating pathways to pursue educational and career opportunities in the outdoors.

Led by Wilderness Inquiry, the Canoemobile is a collaboration of federal, state, and local partners connecting urban youth to the natural world through hands-on, outdoor learning in cities across America.