FrontRange Earth Force, in concert with Denver Public Schools, is set to begin implementation of the winter portion of its Peaks and Plains program, funded by the Sierra Club Foundation. The grant will allow 600 Denver Public School students to cross country or downhill ski at Eldora Mountain Resort in December. The overwhelming majority of the students will be experiencing the thrills of these winter sports for the first time.

The $50,000 grant was designed to offer Denver Public Schools some flexibility in its outdoor programming in light of difficult budgetary constraints. The opportunity is available only to selected schools that previously participated in the Vote for Children program. Chris Taylor, youth program director of the Sierra Club in San Francisco, believes “such an effort, if properly implemented, could have a profound effect on forming youngsters’ views of nature.”

FrontRange Earth Force has supported environmental service-learning programs in the Denver-metro area for the last six years. Its executive director, Lisa Bardwell, believes that “the Peaks and Plains program will allow many children to immeasurably broaden their appreciation of the outdoors and its connection to their lives. If we want kids to care about their communities and the environment, I think it is really important that they have opportunities to go outside of their communities and see them in the larger context.”

Earth Force also has developed the academic classroom tie-ins that will supplement the field trips.

Estevan Duran, science curriculum coordinator for DPS, welcomes the Peaks and Plains grant for “offering DPS students bona fide opportunities for experiential learning that we often are not able to provide our youngest and less affluent students.”

Earth Force has trained facilitators who will provide the environmental expertise on 45 hiking trips that will take place next spring for up to 1,000 students. All Vote for Children schools are eligible to participate on these trips, which will be scheduled on a first-come-first-served basis, beginning in January. Please contact Lisa at frontrange@earthforce.org or Kristi at Kristi_p2@yahoo.com for more information at that time.

Print or electronic journalists wishing to accompany Peaks and Plains classes on one of their winter expeditions should contact Lisa Bardwell at 303-433-0016.