Outdoor Club gearing up for winter campout

On March 1 and 2, the Lincoln Public School's Outdoor Club will be having an overnight winter camping event for students grades 5-12.

Activities during the campout include a Dutch oven dinner Friday evening, campfire, and a moonlight snowshoe hike. Saturday morning there will be a sourdough pancake breakfast and a fun survival olympic games exercise. Students are asked to bring warm layers of clothing, including hat, gloves, jackets and water-resistant pants, personal overnight items, sled, snowshoes, and a sleeping bag and pillow. There are loaner items available, and you can reserve those at sign-up.

The winter camp will be a great introduction for students to experience winter camping in a safe environment and help students build success before graduating to more advanced endeavors. Schwalm hopes parents will encourage their kids to try something new and remind them to participate.

This particular event already has a lot of community involvement through volunteers and donations of equipment for the camp out. The Ponderosa Snow Warrior Club is allowing the Outdoor Club access to the clubhouse and a space to put up a large wall tent for students to camp in. Several members of the community, including Miranda Lauer, Ryan Hollinger, Doug Mengel, Stacy Mannix, Ezra Schwalk, Bill Hooker and Forest Mercill are helping with tents, meals, the wood stove and activities.

In the past, the Outdoor Club was handled strictly by volunteers. Since then, Karyn Good has secured funding from the Wilderness Society. The club now has a Program Coordinator, Nancy Schwalm, who is also the high school science teacher. As the coordinator, she arranges the events and seeks out volunteers who can assist her.

Some of the goals of the club is to help students get outdoors, be active and learn about their surroundings. In December, the club was able to visit the historic Grant-Khors Ranch in Deer Lodge as well as a trip to the Lewis and Clark Caverns.

The club is shooting to do at least one event per month. Some of the planned upcoming events for the coming year include a trip to Freezeout Lake to see the spring bird migration, involvement in the Old Salt Festival, and hikes to Heart Lake and the Continental Divide.

The Outdoor Club is always looking for volunteers to help with student events, as well as donations of outdoor equipment, snacks for the students, and monetary donations.

To find out more about the Outdoor Club at the school, you can reach out to Nancy directly via the contact information above, or visit the Lincoln Public Schools website at: https://sites.google.com/a/lincoln.k12.mt.us/webpage2/home?authuser=0

Participants will need to RSVP to Nancy Schwalm no later than Feb. 23 to reserve a space. She can be reached at 406-750-6310 or via email at [email protected] .