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Jun. 9, 2011
The Adventure Sports Center International (ASCI) was recently awarded a grant of $30,000 from the Naylor Foundation to support its adventure and environmental education programs with Garrett County public schools. The grant will supplement program and administration costs, and furthers a growing effort to reconnect local children with the outdoors.
Through one of these programs, Southern Middle School recently completed several rafting trips on the ASCI mountaintop whitewater course, which is located at the top of Wisp Resort. Some 160 sixth graders, teachers, and parents participated. For many of the students it was an introductory experience with whitewater rafting. Assisted by a guide, students navigated sections of the course with names like the "Dark Destroyer" and "Pinball Alley," where they learned to paddle through drops and jump the raft off rocks.
While rafting, students also had the opportunity to meet with U.S. veterans who were visiting ASCI as part of the All-American Whitewater Festival. The veterans, who are members of Team River Runner, a Wounded Warrior organization, spoke to the middle school students about the lifelong thrill and therapeutic power associated with whitewater.
Through another of the ASCI sponsored programs, Southern Middle School seventh graders climbed and rappelled the rocks at the Fork Run Recreation Area. A 550-acre preserve, Fork Run is managed by ASCI and open to the general public. During their adventure, students ascended and descended the same cliffs that world famous climbers Lynn Hill, Will Gadd, and Hans Florine have recently visited.
At the event, students were instructed on how to "boulder" while climbing, and also on walking a "slackline," which is a modified tightrope set very low to the ground.
Also through ASCI, local eighth graders undertook adventures in various locations. These consisted of rafting, biking, and hiking excursions at Ohiopyle State Park and kayaking and hiking trips in the Oakland area.
The eighth grade program is called "Discovery," a spokesperson stated, because students are allowed to choose their own adventure and "discover for themselves the challenge and thrill of a particular adventure sport."
After the Northern Middle School sixth grade group rafts at the mountaintop whitewater course this month, the total number of participants from Garrett County's middle schools will total over 900 students. The trip will conclude the school's first year in an ASCI program.
Read more here.
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