Kootenai Outdoor Adventure Club making memorable connections
Sammy St. Onge (mentor) shows Lexi Jellesed how the shoot a bow and arrow Friday, July 7 during the Kootenai Outdoor Adventure Program. (Scott Shindledecker/The Western News)
Maura Murer (blue kayak) and Brynn Deshazer (yellow kayak) paddle back from a trip down the Yaak River on Friday, July 7, 2023. (Scott Shindledecker/The Western News)
From left, are Teighler Parker, Brynn DeShazer, Alexandra Boone and Rylee Delmas. Boone, a Libby Public Schools teacher, instructed the students how to shoot a bow and arrow during the Kootenai Outdoor Adventure Program. (Scott Shindledecker/The Western News)
Ben Deremiah helping Rylee Delmas get into a kayak on the Yaak River. (Scott Shindledecker/The Western News)
It’s an ambitious undertaking to be sure, but the benefits of the Kootenai Outdoor Adventure Program are very tangible.
Libby Middle School teacher Bill Moe runs the program that educators have offered for nearly 20 years. It lasts six weeks and includes multiple day events as well as season-ending campouts the last two weeks.
Fellow teachers Ben Deremiah and Alexandra Boone assisted Moe this summer.
“The need for outdoor education, physical activity, mental fortitude, team work and being off the devices is more important than ever for all kids,” Moe said.
They took turns taking the kids on trips to hike various trails, including Flower Lake and Hoskins Lake, the fishing pond in Libby, a bicycle ride on the Hiawatha Mountain Bike Trail and kayaking on the Yaak River.
They also work on plant and animal identification, survival, building shelter and making a fire, Leave No Trace practices and forestry and hydrology.
The program is designed for students entering grades seven through nine. High school students work with the teachers as mentors to the younger students.
“It’s a different dynamic than the traditional teacher-student relationship, which is more formal,” Boone said. “Everyone gets to see everybody else in a bit different environment and I think it helps quite a bit.”
Deremiah, who’s been involved for three years, explained that high school students who apply to be the mentors are interviewed before being hired.
They, along with instructors, are trained in CPR and first aid.
On one Friday afternoon in early July, a local man with property along the Yaak River above the village, graciously allowed the use of his property.
There, kids kayaked the gentler part of the Yaak River while others explored the property and even enjoyed the presence of a finch that spent a great deal of time finding grubs and insects to dine on.
After a lunch of hamburgers, archery targets were set up. Following instruction from Boone, Deremiah and the mentors, students practiced firing arrows into the targets before engaging in a game of “God Save the Queen.”
Students sign up for the program after learning about it through school announcements.
