Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Students from Walkerton’s Sacred Heart Catholic High School had a dry place to sleep Tuesday night thanks to the generosity of the Napanee Lion’s Club.
The local club opened its hall doors to the student group who were in desperate need of last minute accommodations due to a heavy rainfall warning.
Made up of Grade 11s and 12s, the students are part of the Genesis Group, taking part in a unique four-credit outdoor program. Tuesday marked the start of a nine-day camping and cycling trip to wrap up the school year.
“They sign up for the course to learn about the environment, to learn about preservation, to learn how to be a steward and how to develop a relationship with the natural world. In this course they’ve done a five day canoe trip, they’ve done a four day hiking trip on the Bruce Trail, they’ve done rock climbing, rappelling, we’ve done some mitigation projects where we’ve given back to the natural world by fixing up shorelines,” explained teacher Robert Legacy, one of four adults accompanying the students on the trip. “This is our last trip of the year. One of the activities we do in the course is that the students learn that you can be sustainable tourists and you can enjoy the outdoor world in a way that you leave a very light footprint. We’ve been learning since February cycling techniques, repairing bicycles, they’ve put about 300 km on, they’ve been doing dry land training as well as this is our culminating trip.”
The class bus was destined for Picton’s Sandbanks Provincial Park to camp the night when news of the storm broke.
“We were going to go to Sandbanks tonight but with the thunderstorms coming in and heavy rainfall we thought let’s mitigate that risk,” said Legacy. “That’s one thing we teach the students, you mitigate that risk, you don’t roll the dice on the risk, you mitigate that risk so you can have a positive experience.”
The teachers then began reaching out to community groups in hopes they could find a place to set up camp for the 14 students. That’s when Napanee’s Lion’s Club answered the call. As luck would have it the Lions were just wrapping up an afternoon meeting when the phone rang. Had the call come just a few minutes later there wouldn’t have been anyone there to answer.
When the Lions heard their plight they were happy to help. The hall was soon transformed into an indoor campground, with tents set up throughout.
“This is absolutely a first for the Lion’s Club of Napanee. We’ve never had tents set up, we’ve never been an emergency shelter,” said Matt Billow of the Napanee Lions.
The last minute set up was good practice for the club because in the event of a major disaster, the hall is actually designated as an emergency shelter. Fortunately their turn as an emergency shelter wasn’t a particularly serious one.
Following their stop for the night, the students will resume their trip, headed to Quebec’s La Route Verte.
“When we called the Lion’s group they opened their arms with great graciousness and welcomed us here and it’s been wonderful,” said Legacy. “They’ve been great hosts and we thank them very much.”