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Students' trip saved Mail Tribune photos / Bob Pennell First comes the hard work: Gold Hill fifth-graders, from left, Tara Clinger, Jairicka Pappe and Alice Vansteenberghe research marine animals at the library to prepare for their trip to Outdoor School on the Oregon Coast. Fund raising rescues the Outdoor School journey, a Gold Hill tradition for decades By BUFFY POLLOCK GOLD HILL - Thanks to one mom who can't comprehend words like "difficult" and "impossible," Patrick Elementary fifth-graders will make their annual trek to Outdoor School for the 29th year. When budget cuts threatened to cancel Outdoor School, parent and Gold Hill librarian Lori Hettman stepped in to help organize fund-raising efforts that yielded $8,500, enough to keep the trip on track. Hettman will watch her third child make the annual trek as the school's 62 fifth-graders depart for the Oregon Coast May 19. Students will spend their first day on the road visiting the Oregon Dunes and making their way to the Drift Creek Lodge near Newport. While there, they will learn survival skills, get a hands-on look at the marine animals they studied during the year and visit places such as the Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area and the Oregon Coast Aquarium. They'll also take a boat ride aboard Marine Discovery Tours. Cost of the trip averages more than $125 per student (including transportation, food, lodging and admissions), but because of Hettman's fund-raising efforts, students were asked to contribute just $25. For many, the trip will be the first time away from home for an extended length of time. But an excited bunch of pre-teens showed very little anxiety over leaving parents as they worked on their required marine research papers and chatted about the upcoming adventure at the library on Wednesday. A number of the 11- and 12-year-olds were more than aware of how lucky they were to be making the trip. "I'm so excited," said 11-year-old Jairicka Pappe. "We were supposedly not gonna be able to go. I thought it was really cool she (Hettman) actually was doing something for us. "Only part of the trip had to be canceled (a visit to the Hatfield Marine Science Center) because we didn't have the money in time," she added. "We were all looking pretty forward to dissecting a squid, but at least we get to make the trip still. She worked really hard for us." Student Danielle Bonney was relieved the trip could happen for at least one more year, but the 11-year-old worried for next year's students. "I was kinda mad when I heard we weren't going. I had waited since last year to go to the coast with my class," she said. "I'm happy we're going, but I just wish my brother (a fourth-grader) would get to go next year. I'm thinking of doing a car wash to help another class get to go." While the trip is viewed as a capstone to elementary school, future trips are in jeopardy because the cost has increased significantly, said fifth-grade teacher Rob Lewis. In addition, school officials asked parents and teachers not to continue trying to raise large amounts of money in their small community. Lewis, who took the trip himself as a student at Patrick, said it would be sad to see the trips come to an end. "Until you actually go on the trip, you don't know and can't imagine what you're missing," he said. "It can be life-changing for some of these kids." Lewis said teachers were looking at replacing the long trip with a series of day trips and possibly one overnight stay in coming years. "Ideally, we'd like to see most of the trip grant-funded. It's just gotten to the point where it's too much. Seven or eight parents do all the work," he said. "We still want the kids to earn part of the trip so they feel like they worked for it. Sometimes things just have to stop. I guess that's life. "Then again, you never know," he added. "Each year, we say no and then someone comes through for the kids. And every year when we come back from the trip, the parents say, 'You can't stop this.' " Buffy Pollock is a free-lance writer living in Medford. E-mail her at [email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.