Cesar Chavez Organic Garden Project A Success!

The Cesar Chavez Organic Gardening Project with the I Have A Dream Foundation “Dreamers” was a great success.  Our group camped out for three gorgeous evenings at Sunrise Farm, just west of Loveland, CO on a secluded hillside above their organic farm and living community.  The campsite was complete with ponderosa pines, prickly pear cacti, and an area called the “moon rocks,” providing a perfect setting for the trip, which focused on practicing wilderness skills, learning about organic farming, and the life Cesar Chavez.

The folks at Sunrise were great hosts and intrigued us with discussion around the ecological importance of sustainable agriculture.  They really got us thinking about the amount of pollution, water, and fossil fuel that it takes to maintain our current industrialized agricultural paradigm.  Seeing their way of farming provided our group with a hopeful perspective on the complex issue of modern food production.

In return for their hospitality and teaching we spent about 35 total ‘people hours’ planting and harvesting herbs and vegetables in their permaculture garden where we learned experientially about this unique form of agriculture where virtually nothing is wasted!

When we weren’t working side-by-side with the farmers we practiced survival skills such as natural shelter making, various fire-building techniques, and sensory awareness activities near our wooded hillside above the farm. Not only may these skills help save our lives someday, they also are super fun to practice and helped us strengthen our connection to the outdoors we want to help protect and preserve.

At night we cooked delicious dinners together and used our newly acquired fire-building skills to create a fire where we had rich discussions about the life and legacy of Cesar Chavez, including his core values of acceptance of all people, importance of service to others, and the value of hard work, as well as the impact he had as an organizer for the farm-workers of the United States Southwest.

To check out a slide show of the project, Click Here.

A special thanks goes out to our partners for this project, including: Rigo Tostado and Jen Doyle from I Have A Dream Foundation for rallying a group of amazing students to work with, Kristin Maharg and Brandon Jones our Cottonwood Institute Instructors for facilitating a great course, and Patrick Padden at Sunrise Farm for teaching us about organic farming and sustainable agriculture. This project would not be possible without support from our funders, including: Ben & Jerry’s Foundation, the Community Foundation Serving Boulder County Expanding Leadership Initiative, Mile Hi Foods, New Belgium Brewing Company, and Whole Foods Market.

Three Trees and a River Project Was Quite A Ride

After braving the rain and thunderous skies this spring, the final phase of our Three Trees and a River Project was quite a ride. We collaborated with Front Range Earth Force, students from Gilpin E-8 Montessori School in Denver, CO, and the Garden Club of Denver to plant native trees at the Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield to help restore habitat for local wildlife. Students and volunteers worked diligently to plant whips and young saplings into the moist, muddy ground. We marked our trees with a dedication so we could return in the future to check on the progress of the trees we planted.

After an afternoon of practicing survival skills and camping under the stars, the excitement of their final trip together was yet to come. The next day, students teamed up with City Wild for an experience of a lifetime by rafting down the sometimes gentle, sometimes thrilling current of the South Platte River. Although they floated away with some initial trepidation, students ended the trip with new found courage, respect for the water, and smiles that could not be erased for days.

From water monitoring in the fall, surviving in the wilderness during the fall and spring, planting trees, and racing down rapids, students came away from this experience with a new respect for nature, the skills to explore the outdoors again, and the knowledge to protect it for future generations. Although there wasn’t one particular moment that stood out above the rest, the teamwork and support we saw in all of the students was impressive. The ability they had to overcome their fears as they learned to trust themselves was phenomenal. The positive attitude and sense of pride that emanated from each and every student as they said goodbye and walked back to the van wishing there was more time to do it all again, spoke much louder than words could ever express.

To relive the adventure of the Three Trees and a River Project, check out our latest movie and share it with your family and friends by Clicking Here.

A very special thanks goes out to everyone who made this pilot project possible, including: REI and Mustache 4 Cash for funding the project, Front Range Earth Force and Gilpin Montessori E-8 School for organizing the students to work with, and the Garden Club of Denver, the Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield, and City Wild for helping us execute the project. If you are interested in helping us scale and replicate this project with other public schools in the future, please contact Ford Church at 303.447.1076.

Related Links:

• To check out a photo gallery of our spring trip, Click Here
• To read about our fall water monitoring project, Click Here
• To read about our success of our fall survival overnight trip, Click Here

Lakewood High School Students Pass the Snow Test

Amidst the bustling halls of Lakewood High School, 10 brave students stood outside waiting for a school bus dressed in their winter best: winter hats, coats, and snow pants. Their indoor classroom was a thing of the past as they headed out with the Cottonwood Institute for a day trip to Echo Lake on Mt. Evans to practice winter survival techniques.

Thanks to a generous grant from Larry H. Miller Charities and gear donations from the Patagonia Store in Boulder, the students tackled a variety of skills including snowshoeing, snow shelters, winter medical tips, and fire-making techniques.  They learned that shoveling was hard work, but their efforts paid off when they realized they had constructed their very own quinzhee snow shelter.  The highlight of the day was the surprise medical scenario. The students’ quick-thinking skills were put to the test when their teachers wandered into base camp disheveled and disoriented forcing the students into action.  With only a moments hesitation, the students determined the underlying cause and utilized their new skills to keep their teachers warm in a hypo wrap.

After an action-packed day, snowshoes and gear stored away, toes and fingers toasty warm, the students returned to Lakewood High School with serious bragging rights because of their new winter survival skills and knowledge of how to use them.

Click Here for a complete photo gallery of their hard work and great times.

Check out their inspiring video:

Get the link to send to your friends by Clicking Here.

Winter Staff Training 2010

Several weeks have passed since we completed our annual Winter Staff Training for Cottonwood Institute instructors, but now it’s time to reflect on what we learned during that action-packed day. We covered a variety of skills, including: winter safety and risk management concerns, winter survival priorities, quinzhee snow shelters, emergency snow trench shelters, fire-making techniques and how to set up a winter base camp. But the highlight of the day was definitely showing off our mad quinzhee building skills!

Click Here for a complete photo gallery of our hard work, great times, and view step-by-step photos of our snow shelter. And don’t forget to check out our inspiring video. Send the link to your friends by Clicking Here.

Our next Staff Training is scheduled for June 5-6, 2010. If you are interested in instructing for the Cottonwood Institute, please contact Ford Church at 303.447.1076.

2nd Quarter CAP Students Tackle Water and Snow!

The days were shorter and the nights were cooler, but New Vista High School’s 2nd quarter Community Adventure Program class was on fire as they prepared for their two overnight camping trips. While the first trip gave them beautiful fall days, the other made them endure freezing temperatures.

However, both trips were enjoyed by all, as the students practiced basic camping skills, survival strategies, and fire-making techniques.  They also participated in an intense shelter building competition and they even embarked on a midnight hike.

The overnights inspire the students, reminding them what it is they are trying to protect and why.  Paige Doughty, CAP instructor, says it best: “CAP is a completely unique experience because students dictate their own education. They find an environmental issue they are passionate about, and then actively form resolutions to make the world into a better place. They are the Johnny Appleseeds of our time, planting hope for those that come after them.” To read about the environmental issue students tackled this quarter, click on our earlier post called Conserving Water Creatively.

Click here for the complete photo gallery of all the action and check out the uplifting and inspiring video clip below.

Click here for the link to the video and share it with your friends.

(CAP is) “a chance to be yourself, a chance to learn about the environment, a chance to work with others, but most of all it’s a chance to make a change.” Julien Scherliss

Thanks to CAP, I can’t wait to hear the rest of my conversation with nature.” Tess Eckert

I learned to look at people differently and to think differently, and how I can make a difference in the world.” Halsey Black

Happy Sixth Birthday CAP!

Watch out, we’re going to do a little bragging to celebrate.

The Community Adventure Program, or CAP, the Cottonwood Institute’s main educational program, is celebrating its sixth year at New Vista High School!

If you don’t know…CAP aspires to inspire students to change the world through community involvement, an increased awareness of local environmental issues, and practicing essential wilderness survival skills. CAP gives students a chance to grow from within and to become more confident in order to make change. In the words of one student, “the Community Adventure Program has changed my life.”

As a part of this service learning curriculum each CAP class does an Action Project, which focuses on an environmental issue. CAP students have implemented 22 unique action projects over the years, taking on everything from the creation of gardens and changing transportation habits to helping educate about non-point source water pollution and pollinators.

Partially as a result of this fantastic teaching model several CAP alumni have been nominated for the City of Boulder’s Outstanding Youth Volunteer Award. Many have won! One of our alumni received a $100,000 Environmental Stewardship Scholarship to Sterling College. But our students don’t stop there. Several CAP alumni have come back to become paid Cottonwood Institute instructors. We are so happy to have these superstars on board.

CAP is often touted at New Vista as a class that everyone should take at least once. To quote one student’s final reflection paper:

“CAP has shown me the potential that all human beings have. I have learned to have faith and trust in people and to have faith in myself as well… We have changed our world and look down upon ourselves for doing it. But I believe we have the potential to change it back. If we act with consideration, with knowledge, with awareness and respect for our planet and each other we can change the world in different ways — in better ways.” – Lindsey Q.

Happy sixth birthday, CAP, and way to go!

Hebrew High Embarks On A New Adventure This Year

Hebrew High in Denver and Boulder embarked on a new adventure this school year by working with the Cottonwood Institute to offer a new Eco-Judaism in Action class based on our successful Community Adventure Program curriculum.

The Eco-Judaism in Action class is a unique after school experience designed for adventurous Jewish youth who want to practice outdoor skills, discuss and debate local environmental issues, and develop deeper friendships with their classmates while exploring their Jewish faith. Students have been going on hikes, building their leadership skills, gearing up for a spring “Shabbat Under the Stars” camping trip, and soon they will give back to their community by creating a student-directed Tikkun Olam eco-service project.

The Boulder and Denver groups headed out on a beautiful fall day on October 18, 2009 and discovered not only ways to change the world, but how to survive and thrive in it. Although only a day long, their hikes were action packed. Throughout the day they hiked and discussed nature awareness skills, survival priorities, and environmental issues and their connection to them.  The group talked about prayer and what it meant to them and ways to make it more meaningful. They even had time for reflection and journaling in which Hebrew High Boulder student, Alex Young, crafted this insightful poem:

Wind.
Always there,
Rushing
Through the pines.
Sometimes fast, powerful, loud.
Sometimes slow, gentle, soft.
Rustling the brown grasses,
Swaying the dried flowers.
Young trees bend
With fierce winds,
Ancient trees firmly hold their ground.
Short grasses don’t rustle,
They are silent.
Wind,
Always there.

• To view pictures of the Hebrew High Boulder day hike, Click Here.
• To view pictures of the Hebrew High Denver day hike, Click Here.

Students Escape Concrete Jungle To Explore The Outdoors

Under the warmth of the sun, 13 students from Gilpin K-8 Montessori School escaped the concrete jungle of Denver last weekend to find themselves surrounded by snow-capped peaks to learn about the environment and how to survive in it. The goals were simple: get students outdoors, have fun, and connect them with the environment before we ask them to save it.

Thanks to a generous grant from REI, the Cottonwood Institute teamed up with FrontRange Earth Force and Gilpin to take students on an overnight camping trip in the mountains to help increase the accessibility of the outdoors for inner city youth in Denver. For the rest of the school year, Gilpin students will work with Earth Force to tackle energy issues at their school. This trip was an important step to help them gain a love and appreciation of the environment so they can go back home to the city and help reduce their environmental footprint.

As the sun made its way across the sky, students played sensory awareness games like the 360 degree stalk and participated in three fire stations learning various ways to make fire: one-match fire, cotton ball fire, and bow drill fire. The excitement in their voices as they learned a new skill was evidenced by the smiles on their faces as they watched their friends accomplish the same task.

Dinner was consumed hungrily and the anticipation of s’mores and hot chocolate by the campfire became too much to bear, so they set off on a night hike before settling by the fire.  With plentiful stars and crisp, cool air, the kids were eager to explore the darkness of their new weekend world.  They set out with headlamps on and came back to camp with nothing to light the night sky except the brilliance of the stars to guide their way.  The crackle of the fire provided warmth and comfort as the day ended and all looked forward to the next.

Sunday began bright and early with breakfast burritos and packing up camp, but the adventure was not over. The students ventured away from camp for a short hike and a shelter building competition. After the kids watched a quick demonstration of a debris shelter, they broke into groups and had an hour to build one of their own.  Whose would be the best?  Turns out they all were!

All too soon, it was time to pack up and head out.  In the words of the wise students, the instructors were “cool, fun, friendly, and helpful.”  Another student, Marylu, was so moved by the experience, she stated “I think I have enough resources to tackle an environmental issue, because this experience helped me to show leadership.”

What a fabulous way to spend the weekend!

Click here to check out the photo gallery of all the fun!

Gilpin Students Make World Water Monitoring Day a Success

On Thursday, September 17, 2009 students from Gilpin K-8 School headed over to the South Platte River in downtown Denver to team up with Earth Force and Cottonwood Institute for World Water Monitoring Day (WWMD).

In partnership with Keep it Clean from Drain to Stream (KIC), a water education campaign led by Denver Public Works, Denver City Councilwoman Judy Montero kicked off the event with her inspiring opening remarks and encouraged students to do their part to help keep Denver’s water clean. Approximately 25 students and 10 volunteers performed a variety of tests along the South Platte River to check the water quality for the wildlife that call it home and for the people that use it for recreation.  Students performed several water tests including, pH, turbidity, temperature, and dissolved oxygen, waded in the water in search of macroinvertebrates, and participated in an interactive game called “The Incredible Journey” to understand the water cycle.

Students recorded their findings, which will be submitted to the Water Environment Federation.  Community results are published each year in the “Year in Review” report and made available on the WWMD website, so stay tuned for more information. At the end of the day, students had gained knowledge on not just water, but how to keep it safe, how to know it’s safe, and how to enjoy it responsibly.

WWMD was one of three events Cottonwood Institute, Earth Force and Gilpin have planned for the 2009 - 2010 school year thanks to a generous grant from REI. Other courses include a fall camping trip and a spring rafting adventure, so check back with us to keep track of all that we accomplish throughout the year.

Volunteers Give Back On Mt. Evans

Under the intense blue of the mountain sky atop Mt. Evans, Cottonwood Institute and Colorado Fourteeners Initiative (CFI) teamed up to give back to the mountains we love so much. Our volunteers worked hard for two days, completing much needed trail maintenance and ecological restoration projects next to the glistening waters of Summit Lake. They got down and dirty moving rocks and building steps, making the trails around Summit Lake safe and enjoyable for all of us.

Cottonwood Institute believes in giving back to the mountains we love and use as our “office.”  By doing so, we build a connection with our communities, with nature, and with people. In the end, after hard-working days, and star-strewn nights, our volunteers came together, worked diligently, and had a great time! According to Josh Chance, “that’s the most fun I’ve had all year! I definitely want to participate again.”

We offer courses and volunteer projects for schools, community organizations, and businesses throughout the year.  Keep track of all we do at Cottonwood Institute and don’t miss out on anything by checking out our blog at http://www.cottonwoodinstitute.org/blogs/cottonwood-institute/

You can see all of the action on Mt. Evans by Clicking Here for the complete photo gallery.

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