The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Thirty years ago John Belfry wasnÕt expecting his idea to teach students how to canoe to still be going. But it is, and itÕs going as strong as ever. The Ontario native says when he came and saw the local countryside, he knew he had to do something. ÒI asked kids to sign up and there were 66 kids interested,Ó says Belfry, who became a teacher at McIsaac School Ecole McIsaac. Belfry took the Grade 7-9 students Friday after class and kept them until Sunday. They were able to cover a variety of topics, including fire safety, cooking, campsites, the environment and, of course, how to canoe. ÒWe did that for three weeks straight to get all 66 kids in. We ran it all weekend. We borrowed all the equipment,Ó he says. Thirty years later, BelfryÕs canoe program is still going strong with groups just finishing for the school year. Over the last 30 years, Belfry estimates a few thousand students have gone through the program. ÒI enjoyed it as much as the kids did the first time,Ó he says. ÒItÕs a really good program,Ó he says. ÒWe trained teachers and started that way and then we found Camp Whitney.Ó A large part of the reason the program was started was to give students the chance to learn about their environment, says Belfry. ÒI thought we could do a lot of outside education. IÕm very close to nature and I love to see people out there,Ó he says. And from what he can tell, the Òkids really enjoy and learn a lot in a short period of time.Ó Along with the safety portion of the trip, the students also learn about GPS, and do crafts, drama and day-to-day education. One day-to-day lesson, not always taught in school, is learning to cook. ÒSome of them have never cooked before, so they learn to do that as a team and they also learn how to pack their own food and make menus,Ó says the coordinator. ÒI enjoy being able to see them canoe and learn a little bit of history,Ó he says, adding that they talk about how voyagers traveled centuries ago. Belfry says another interesting thing to see is the way teachers and students interact when they arenÕt in a classroom setting. ÒThey get to see a side they really respect,Ó he says. Students in grades 7, 9 and 12 partake in the canoe trips , with two different routes. The Grade 7 classes take a two-day adventure on Phantom Lake while the grades 9 and 12 classes head to Mikanagaen on the Pine Rock River. With 30 years of experience under his belt, Belfry says he hopes to see the program to continue for years to come. ÒWe live in this environment we should learn to respect it,Ó he says.
