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WMMS students experience Wolf Ridge
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Students and staff from Watertown-Mayer Middle School took the school’s 25th annual trip to Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center in Finland, Minn., on Feb. 9-13. The following is a brief account of the trip that was submitted by sixth grade staff members Ryan Jepma, Karen Veches, Jeanne Penney, Tyler Finkelson and Naomi Stelzer.
Once again we enjoyed a trip that was loaded with fun, exciting, and challenging environmentally-based classes. As in most years, the highlights of the trip for many students were the high ropes course, rock-climbing wall, night hike, and the basic survival class.
As we began our journey at 6 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 9, the weather called for rain and icy conditions. Being the hardy Minnesotans we are, we headed out. Not more than 20 minutes into the five hour trek to Wolf Ridge, one of our buses broke down on the side of Highway 12 outside of Long Lake. This delay set us back 45 minutes. Four and a half hours later, we arrived safely at the entrance of the Wolf Ridge facility. Much to our surprise, the other two buses were waiting for us at the bottom of a very long and icy hill.
A short while later, a gravel truck sanded the road, and the buses were able to make it to the top of the hill. We were finally ready to get to our first class and let the learning begin. The icy conditions didn’t just affect the roads, they also made walking around quite treacherous, and these icy conditions persisted until Wednesday when we got six inches of snow overnight.
We also had a number of students get sick while at Wolf Ridge which resulted in either cutting their week short or making a portion of their experience a difficult one.
Many of the students were gracious enough to make get well cards for the sick students to help them feel better. Our students could have complained about and been negative about what was going on, but they stayed positive throughout and made the best of their experience at Wolf Ridge.
This year’s trip was partially made possible by our students selling candy bars for the first month of the school year. We are especially grateful for the donations from the Mayer Baseball Club, the Watertown-Mayer PTO and the scholarship that we earned from the Plautz Family School Scholarship. Without the financial backing from outstanding organizations like these, this trip would not have been experienced by a number of our students. We can’t express to you enough how grateful we are and what this has been to our students.
And last but certainly not least, our chaperones. They were outstanding! They were there for our students every step of the way, helping to make this trip a memorable one for each and everyone of them.
Whenever they were asked to do something they never complained or asked questions. They just rolled up their sleeves and dove right into any situation that was thrown at them. It is a very thoughtful act on their part, giving up a week of their time away from their jobs and their families to help make Wolf Ridge all it can be. To everyone who came together and made our 25th annual trek to Wolf Ridge a reality, we thank you.
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