Oregon Adaptive Sports partnership allows students needing assistance to experience snowshoe field trip
This Friday, a new partnership between the Deschutes National Forest, Discover Your Northwest and Oregon Adaptive Sports will allow local youth, who normally might have to skip an outdoor field trip, to join their classmates in Mt. Bachelor’s snow.
Traditionally, the Deschutes National Forest, Discover Your Northwest, and Mt. Bachelor host several snowshoe field trips for local students to learn about the forest environment in winter. However, not every student has been able to enjoy the trip until now. This year, a new partner, Oregon Adaptive Sports, is helping to make the field trip an activity every student can enjoy.
From 10am to noon, on Friday, January 13 at Mt. Bachelor, the Forest Service and Discover Your Northwest along with Oregon Adaptive Sports will host a snowshoe tour for students from Mountain View High School. Ten students will be on the field trip, including a few students who would not normally get the opportunity. Three students, who navigate the world via wheelchairs, will join their classmates on the trip through bi-ski set-ups. These bi-ski set-ups will allow the students, with the assistance of a volunteer, to travel across the snow.
A similar field trip is planned for Cascade Middle School students the following Friday, January 20.
Getting ALL students in Central Oregon out in the environment to learn about the outdoors is a major goal of the Deschutes Children’s Forest, a partnership of the Deschutes National Forest and several other partners, including Discover Your Northwest, the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council, the High Desert Museum, Wolftree, Bend La-Pine School District, and Bend Park and Recreation District. The new partnership with Oregon Adaptive Sports is helping to make that goal a reality.
For more information about the field trip, please contact Larry Berrin, Discover Your Northwest, at 541-480-6236 or 541-383-4771.
For more information about the Deschutes Children’s Forest, please contact Sean Ferrell, Acting Partnerships Coordinator for the Deschutes National Forest, 541-383-5576.
