St. Marys students enjoy great outdoors
Thursday, October 11, 2012 8:00 PM
VAN WERT - On Oct. 3 and 4, fifth grade students at St. Mary of the Assumption participated in an overnight stay at Camp Clay as part of an "Outdoor Education Experience." Accompanied by their teacher, Megan Fritz and Principal Dave Mathew, the students were instructed in such areas as: team building, Native American and pioneer history, outdoor skills such as tracking, fire-building, shelter, survival, and dependence on nature.
Clint Meyers, outdoor education specialist and Camp Clay supervisor, led the activities.
One of the problems given to the students was to calculate the volume of the cabin at Camp Clay by using triangulation to estimate the length, width, and height of the building. They were challenged on a nature walk to identify as many plants as they could along their trail.
Students prepared their meals over an open wood fire including beef stew, baked bread in a cast iron Dutch oven, and churned their own butter.
The students got to share "S'mores" around the campfire with parents and siblings swapping stories with Fr. Stan. After which, they experienced a good night's sleep in the log cabin.
The next day the students got to enjoy the view from the pond as they were instructed in the use of canoes.
This proved to be an enjoyable educational experience for all participants.