Some students from School District 10’s Outdoor Education Program want a climbing wall in the high school gym — and they’ve turning that desire into a learning experience.
The students have taken the ball and run with it — drawing up proposals, scoping and managing the project, writing grant applications and making presentations to government.
“We started by researching what it would take to put a climbing wall in our gym,” says Bryce Friedenberger, who’s in his second year working on the project. “We did a lot of research online about what it takes — engineering, how much materials cost, and if it’s feasible for us to do this in our own school.”
This year the students took the next step, approaching the Columbia Basin Trust, the RDCK, and businesses for grants and donations. It taught them another valuable skill — identifying funding sources, and writing grant applications.
“We had to figure out what information was needed, how to write it, format it and how to use their language,” says Xander Leeson-Booth. “We had to use different language or they wouldn’t understand. We had to fix stuff, switch tenses — they didn’t like that — or fix spelling errors.”
“It was a massive learning curve, everything hasto be written in a different language,” adds Friendenberger. “You have to kind of put in what they want to hear, but at the same time we have to be accurate with the information, and also get your point across about what you’re trying to do and what the benefits will be for the community and our school.”
The work was successful though, with the group getting commitments for $76,000 - enough to build the facility, purchase the necessary equipment, get safety certification, and provide a fund for maintenance and insurance.
The idea now is to build both a bouldering wall and vertical climbing wall in the Nakusp Secondary School gym. It would be used both by the school, and for the community. User fees would be collected to fund ongoing maintenance.
But first, before anything else, an engineering study has to be done. The school principal, Peter Gajda, cautions that is a big hurdle.
“We have to know if it is even physically possible to do this,” he says. “The next step is to bring in an engineer to consult with Maintenance, to see if we can even put bolts in the wall.
“That might stop us in our tracks.”
Then there are a half dozen other potential deal-breakers: how the walls might affect the heating and fire supression systems, insurance, the construction schedule, and weekend school access issues. Any one of those variables makes it impossible to say when the wall may become a reality, says Gajda.
“There are just so many dominoes that have to happen and puzzle pieces to fit that we can’t commit to a date,” he says.
But for the students, it’s already been a valuable experience. And that’s the point of the Outdoor Education Program: to help students gain entrepreneurship and business experience, and take a a leadership role in expanding recreational activities in the community.
“Learning to write grants is a really big thing when you are young,” said Gracie Pedersen. “So as you get older it’s a great thing to have on your resume or for work in general.”
“Or if you want to help around the community in any way, knowing how to write grants gives you a big step up on what’s happening,” added Emma Orr.
While the wall would add a significant piece of recreation infrastructure to the village, the students are keeping clear-eyed on their chances of making this happen.
“There’s still so much more that has to be done,” says Friendenberger. “Getting the money is a big part of it, but there are so many other things to work out first before making it a reality.”
