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The Lure of the Outdoors By Jan McCoy Ebbets Wanted: Outdoor enthusiasts, both novices and adventurers alike. Take a hike through a wooded hillside aflame with autumn colors. Learn to ice-skate. Explore a wintry New England landscape on snowshoes. Or test your mettle with a canoe paddle. No experience or résumés necessary. Respond to Smithoutdoors@ hotmail.com. This is Smith Outdoors, a new program geared for Smith students, even the couch potatoes, to introduce them to recreational adventure -- anything from whitewater canoeing to indoor ice skating, anything but sitting in your room on a Saturday afternoon. Smith Outdoors is not about such extreme sports as parasailing or trekking up Mount Everest. But it is meant to entice off-campus even those intrepid Smith students who constantly strive to scale new academic heights-and forget to relax once in a while. Most outings are short and convenient, leaving on a Saturday or Sunday and returning the same day. Transportation and equipment, from kayaks to snowshoes and ice skates, are provided free of charge. All you have to do is register with a phone call or an e-mail. During fall and spring breaks, longer trips are offered. This March, for instance, Smith Outdoors made a five-day foray into the Florida Sea Islands, where Smith women, for a moderate cost, camped and kayaked along the warm Gulf of Mexico coastline. Now in its second year, Smith Outdoors evolved out of a desire to enhance the quality of residential life on campus and is a collaborative effort between Smith's athletic and exercise and sport studies departments and the Office of the Dean of the College. Headquartered at the Paradise Pond boathouse, Smith Outdoors runs all of its own off-campus weekend trips. Scott Johnson, director of the program, and two interns, Heather Smith '02 and Alyssa Merwin '02, have planned and led all the trips this year. "This program is intended as a benefit to all students," says Johnson. "It shows them a different side of college. They don't always have to be working, studying, doing academics. This program provides a balance, a way to have fun. It's an intrinsic part of the college experience, in fact -- trying new things and developing new friendships." Plus, it's just good to get outside once in a while. "It's unbelievable to me sometimes what a difference it can make, to get off campus, get outside, get some fresh air," says Smith, who comes from Columbia, S.C. She describes herself as someone who is "thirsty for any outdoor activity," and as a first-year she found a great outlet in the student-run Outing Club, which also offers outdoor trips. Now in her official role as an intern with Smith Outdoors, she assists on the trips, sits for office hours in the Paradise Pond boathouse, and helps plan new adventures. "We share a profound respect for nature and like to share her special gifts with Smith students through the fun trips that we line up," notes Johnson, who adds that most trips are geared toward beginners. "The goal is to reach the nonadventurous students." Johnson, who graduated from the University
of Montana with a degree in recreation management and an emphasis
on program development, says students often express surprised
appreciation after an outing. "When we get back to campus,
they'll say to me, 'Thanks. I'm clearheaded now. It took a load
off the stress I've been feeling. Now I can get back to studying.'"-JME |
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