This past weekend, the Community Adventure Program (CAP) students of STRIVE Preparatory Schools – Sunnyside, made the journey to Cal-Wood to spend the weekend camping with their Cottonwood Institute course. They saw and learned a ton about their environment. They thought it was really cool when they found out pine needles were edible. They loved walking through the grass that was as tall as they were. The view in the morning was beautiful! You could see the clouds coming towards the students, and then they played camouflage in a cloud.

As a service learning project, the group all worked together to build slash and burn piles. Slash and burn piles are a traditional way to manage forests, to prevent unwanted fires. While doing this, the group learned about fire ecology and forest management. They made the slash piles as a thank you to Cal-Wood for allowing the group to stay.

The highlight to f the trip was after the long hike that the group took in the afternoon, the rain started to pour. They went in the warming hut and played some games and read the Lorax. They watched and listened to the rain and hail go by while dinner was getting ready. After dinner they ate s’mores by the fire. Finally, the rain stopped and they went back down to their campsite to go to bed. It was a great trip!

Written by students from the STRIVE Preparatory Schools – Sunnyside CAP class.

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