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75 °F Forecast | Road Cams Saturday, August 28, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Prime Times Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Rogue Valley's Finest EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend March 3, 2004 Washington Elementary School sixth-graders Ryan Linton, left, and Jose Loveland build a snow shelter during a daylong outing at Mount Ashland. The kids earned the trip by achieving at least 95 percent attendance at school. Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli A day they won’t soon forget Students from Washington Elementary learn to survive in the snow during a Mount Ashland field trip By BILL KETTLER Mail Tribune Jose Loveland and his pals scraped frantically at the snow with their gloved hands, trying to dig themselves a shelter as a storm approached. Never mind that they worked beneath Tuesday’s heavenly blue sky and warm sunshine. Jose and his pals were deep in the midst of a survival lesson on the slopes of Mount Ashland. "We’re kind of lost," the sixth-grader explained, "and we’ve got to make a shelter so we can survive." Forty-four sixth-graders from Medford’s Washington Elementary School went to the mountain Tuesday, the first contingent of about 150 students who earned the trip by achieving at least 95 percent attendance. The Medford Rogue Rotary Club helped organize the outing to encourage Washington students to come to school by rewarding them with a taste of winter in the mountains. Advertisement Bob Matthews, owner of Medford’s Rogue Ski Shop, helped organize the field trip. Matthews said sharing the mountain with kids who might not otherwise ever visit was one of the original goals when Mount Ashland became a publicly owned ski area in 1993. Matthews arranged the showing of a ski movie to raise money for the field trip and coordinated arrangements with other Rotary members and Washington Principal Stephanie Johnson. Few of the kids who romped in the snow Tuesday had ever visited the Mount Ashland ski area, and many had never been to the mountains in winter, said Connie Vandenbergh, a teacher who accompanied students to the mountain. Vandenbergh noted that many Washington students come from low-income families that would be hard-pressed to afford ski or snowboard lessons for their children. She said 93 percent of Washington students qualify for the federal free-and-reduced lunch program, up from just 42 percent when she started teaching in the school 16 years ago. The youngsters had a ski or snowboard lesson in the morning, and tried their hands at building snow shelters in the afternoon. Students were divided into five groups, each "lost" in the woods under circumstances that determined what kinds of tools they had. Young Jose and his friends were told they had been sledding, and had just one plastic sled to work with. A group of "overnight hikers" had shovels and a tarp; a group of "environmentalists" who had been out picking up trash had plastic bags and buckets; a group of "snowboarders" had their boards to work with; and a group of "unprepared day hikers" had nothing but their hands and feet. Learning to work together proved challenging, and some groups fared better than others. Jose’s group’s first excavation collapsed and they had to start over. The "snowboarders" would have perished despite their big digging tools, in the judgment of sixth-grade teacher Wayne McNaught. "They just couldn’t decide what to to," McNaught said. "Whether to use it as a shovel, whether to go wider or deeper." Students seemed to understand that a snowy mountain could be a hostile environment in less than ideal conditions, said Brian Brown, a fourth-grade teacher who came out to help. "They realized that (making a shelter) was a lot harder than they thought," Brown said. "I heard one comment, ‘How do people survive out here?’ This gives them a little sense of how hard it would be to make a shelter out here." Fourth- and fifth-graders who met the attendance mark will make the same trip next Tuesday and Thursday. Sixth-graders were beaming as they sat in a snow bank for a group photo at the end of the day. "This is a day they won’t forget," said teacher Sandi English. "They’ll come back years later and say, ‘Remember that day on Mount Ashland?’ " Reach reporter Bill Kettler at 776-4492, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities