2008 Success Stories

2008 proved to be an exciting year for the Cottonwood Institute. Before the end of the year approaches, I wanted to take a moment to share some of our exciting success stories and to thank all of our donors, instructors, volunteers, educational partners, students, and parents that helped make it all possible.

PARTICIPANTS SERVED:

In 2008, we served 800 participants through the Community Adventure Program, our Summer Courses, programs for Schools & Community Organizations, Free Survival Skills Clinics, and Change the World Movie Nights!

SCHOLARSHIPS:

This summer we awarded over $7,000 in scholarships, a 250% increase from 2007! We are incredibly grateful to all of our donors who have supported our Jason F. Griffith Scholarship Fund to make our courses accessible to those that otherwise would not have the opportunity to join us for a course this summer.

JACK JOHNSON CHALLENGE GRANT:

We successfully met a $2,500 challenge grant from Jack Johnson, the All at Once Community, and the Johnson Ohana Charitable Foundation raising $5,000 for our Jason F. Griffith Scholarship Fund.

EPA GRANT:

We received a $20,000 Environmental Education Grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency to help underwrite the costs of implementing our public school initiative called the Community Adventure Program at New Vista High School in Boulder, CO and at P.S.1 Charter School in Denver, CO.

REI WINTER GEAR GRANT:

We have continued to strengthen our partnership with REI, Inc. and received a $5,000 winter gear grant to acquire the gear and equipment we need to increase the accessibility of winter recreation with our students. We are now equipped to take students out all year long without having to rent or borrow gear from other groups. We are also participating the 2009 Winter Trails Day sponsored by REI and Snowsports Industries America, so stay tuned for volunteer opportunities to help get more youth outside this winter.

EXPANDING PROGRAMS:

Based on our financial success so far this year, we have been able to expand the Community Adventure Program to Manual High School in Denver. Manual is an amazing school that was once a failing school shut down by school district, but under the leadership of Rob Stein and an amazing new staff has transformed Manual into a model school reform success story. Learn my by listening to the NPR Report that aired earlier this summer.

ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICE-LEARNING:

The Cottonwood Institute is committed to inspiring active community leaders and environmental stewards and I was impressed with the “Action Projects” that our students and volunteers completed this summer. From organic gardening to wildfire mitigation to horse and wolf caretaking projects to completing much-needed restoration work on Mt. Evans with the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, we made a huge difference in Colorado this summer.

Action Project: In progress!

Manual students have decided to try and do something about the litter at their school.  After completing tedious research, calling on neighbors and community leaders for support, and writing a grant we have finally been able to purchase 10 additional trash cans for the school to be placed in high traffic areas.  Furthermore, students are painting the trash cans so they are attractive and more eye catching; previously, trash cans were difficult to find so students believe it was not convenient enough for kids to find the trash cans.  We are also working on an awareness campaign.  Trash cans and litter fact posters will be up on Tuesday, Dec. 16th.

CAP Post Course Survey, 2nd Quarter 2008

As the quarter comes to a close, I wanted to get some open and honest feedback from this class about how to improve the CAP for future students. This information will not affect your grade, but please take it seriously. It will be reviewed by the school, the Cottonwood Institute, and this information will help us secure funding to make this class accessible to other high school students. Please Click Here to Take the Survey.

Day Trip

Manual students took a day trip to explore their community and partake in a little fun!

We started at Thrillseekers, an indoor rock climbing gym.  After learning about the equipment, safety tips, and a few techniques we were ready to climb!

Tailor and Marissa race up the wall! Tayana takes her first shot at making it up the wall.

 

 

Next we met with Linda Dowlen who works with Ride Arrangers.  We learned about how people in the city can set up carpools with one another to cut down on traffic and air pollution.  

 

 

Last, we ate at SAME cafe, a restaurant that has no prices!  They serve all local and organic foods and believe all people, no matter their economic status, should be able to eat a healthy meal.  After eating, we served the staff at SAME cafe by helping clean up and close down the shop.

Action Project: Promote Bike Commuting!

For our Action Project, the Community Adventure Program (CAP) students at PS1 have decided to take a look at transportation.  In doing so, we found out that most of the students in our class are pretty good at using public transportation (since they can’t drive!).  However, we also found that it would be much more efficient and healthy if they could ride their bikes to school, friends houses, on errands, etc.

CAP partnered with Derailer Bicycle Collective to fix up a fleet of bikes for the students.  In the end, every student was able to have a functioning bike to take home.  Furthermore, students learned about safe routes to school, safety, and most importantly- how to keep their bike in working order.

Many of the donated bikes were completely un-rideable when we got them.  Now however, they look almost new!  Thank you so much to the volunteers at Derailer for their time, expertise, tools, and extra parts!

Students work with Derailer volunteers to fix brakes, wheels, and spokes.

“I liked being able to have someone show me what to do, then getting a chance to try it myself.” – Indio

Day Trip: Three Sister’s & Rock Climbing

PS1 students took a day trip up to Three Sister’s Park outside of Evergreen, CO.  We hiked, practiced shelter building, and had an all around great time!  In the afternoon, we ventured over to Thrillseekers, an indoor rock climbing gym.  For many of us, this was our first attempt on a rock wall.  It’s a lot more difficult than it looks!  After learning about the equipment, safety issues, and a few techniques, we were ready to go– Climb on!

 

 

 

 

CAP Post Course Survey, 2nd Quarter 2008

As the quarter comes to a close, I wanted to get some open and honest feedback from this class about how to improve the CAP for future students. This information will not affect your grade, but please take it seriously. It will be reviewed by the school, the Cottonwood Institute, and this information will help us secure funding to make this class accessible to other high school students. Please Click Here to Take the Survey.

We've Been Busy!

Our second overnight is complete, our action project is in full swing, and next week we’ll be going rock climbing to celebrate. 

 

The past few weeks have been busy ones. We met with North Boulder Recreation Center to get a look at a LEED certified building, we chose our environmental issue, and survived a night in the snow.   

 

Second quarter CAP class has chosen “water issues” as their environmental focus.  We narrowed down “water issues” to two different focus areas: bottled water, and water conservation.

 

Here are our problem statements:

 

Bottled water:

In the United States alone, we dispose of almost 22 billion petroleum based water bottles every year.  It is estimated that each bottle will take over one million years to decompose.  Making plastic bottles and transporting them contributes to climate change.  In addition these plastic bottles contain chemicals, such as bisphenol A, that are potentially hazardous to human health.

 

Water Conservation:

Water is essential for all living beings.  Unfortunately humans greatly abuse water, treating it as a right rather than a privilege.  In Boulder County we live in a semi-arid region, because of this it is essential that we conserve water.

 

As we’ve moved through our action project process the students have decided to create a movie to raise awareness about water in Boulder.  In addition we will be completing a clean up at a Boulder Creek this coming Friday December 12^th, 2008.

 

 Our second overnight was, simply put, awesome.  We completed service work, practiced our fire skills, learned map and compass skills, and sang around the campfire with special guest Jeff Kagan, local environmental children’s musician.  

 

We spent the evening around a glowing fire, played our favorite games and threw plenty of snowballs!

 

Enjoy the photos and look out for a final update coming soon.

 

For Now… Ready

 

 

 

 

Aim

FIre!

Alumni Snapshot: Coral Hackler

While trying to get in touch with past Cottonwood Institute students, I got a very enthusiastic response from Coral Hackler. Coral took the Community Adventure Program at New Vista High School in 2004. She was very excited to be able to contribute to the Cottonwood Institute in any way she could. Here is what she had to say:

Q: What are you up to these days?

A: I am currently a senior majoring in Psychology and Gender Studies at Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO. I am still and avid camper and backpacker. I love the outdoors, which is a big reason that I moved to Durango for college. Another big factor in my relocation down here is the environmentally conscious community that thrives around me. The Community Adventure Program gave me confidence in my skills as an outdoorswoman that still resonates today.

Q: What is your favorite Cottonwood Institute memory or story from your courses?

A: I think the best was shoveling snow at Saint Mary’s Glacier to build a snow Quinzhee. The lazy people who didn’t want to shovel sat shivering in the snow, while the people shoveling were throwing off layers of clothing because they were creating so much body heat. That night we slept in the shelter and stayed super warm. I even had to unzip my bag because I was sweating so much.

Q: What environmental issue are you most passionate about and what are you doing to address it?

A: There are so many environmental issues and they are all extremely important. I particularly believe that most of these stem from our belief that profit and greed is important to successful living, and that this must happen by plundering all our natural resources without regard to environmental or human consequences. I have been getting really into food politics and learning about the industrialization and the corporation of our food system. I am very worried about the amount of oil that it takes to sustain our food supply. I have been focusing on helping the Durango food economy strengthen.  I am working with my school to bring local foods into the cafeterias. I have been trying to grow my own food and preserve food for the winter. Earlier this year someone called the FLC Environmental Center and reported an abandoned peach orchard. We worked hard to pick and collect peaches. We then made as many cans of peach jelly, peach cobbler, and peach salsa that we could and gave away the peaches to every hungry mouth we could find. I also participated in our local Homegrown Festival that taught Durangoans what to do with all the neighborhood apple and other fruit trees.

CAP Post Course Survey, 1st Semester 2008

As the quarter comes to a close, I wanted to get some open and honest feedback from this class about how to improve the CAP for future students. This information will not affect your grade, but please take it seriously. It will be reviewed by the school, the Cottonwood Institute, and this information will help us secure funding to make this class accessible to other high school students. Please Click Here to Take the Survey.

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