PITTSFIELD — Dry kindling was in short supply at Herberg Middle School on Tuesday morning, with an overnight deluge dampening sticks, twigs and the odds of a successful fire.
But for the 70 or so middle schoolers tasked with building campfires in the school’s back lawn, the soggy sticks had to suffice. It was supposed to be a survival scenario, after all, and rain can come at any moment.
Middle school students scramble to make campfires in a 21st Century grant program unit combining literacy and outdoor skills.
The campfire building was an exercise of the Pittsfield Public Schools’ 21st Century Community Learning Centers federally funded grant program, which offers after-school and summer programming for students in the district.
The summer program is a four-week learning experience. It gives students from Herberg and Reid middle schools the opportunity to get hands-on education between school years, usually following a theme for the lessons.
This year’s program went along with Gary Paulsen’s 1983 novel “Hatchet,” in which a 13-year-old boy is forced to survive for weeks on his own in the Canadian wilderness after his plane's crash landing due to the pilot’s massive heart attack.
That set the lesson plan for the children, according to Linda Whitacre, district coordinator for the grant program. The summer curriculum tied to the book includes learning how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), going on hikes and swims in the woods and building campfires.
Ollie Mady, 12, and Seth Laprade, 12, put out a campfire during 21st Century grant program activities at Herberg Middle School.
It took Ollie Mady and Seth Laprade a couple of tries to finally get the fire right. By the end of the morning the incoming seventh graders broke through by “comboing it,” as Mady described it. The boys used a “log cabin” style, which involves overlapping sticks in a square arrangement, as their base, and put a “teepee” campfire, where sticks are stood up against each other diagonally, in the middle.
Students start a log cabin style campfire during 21st Century grant program activities involving outdoor skills.
Jolee N. Daoust, 15, starts a campfire behind Herberg Middle School as part of 21st Century grant program activities involving outdoor skills.
Building the fire wasn’t easy, and took some help from one of the program’s counselors. Ultimately, the students said they succeeded because they worked together.
“We used teamwork, good companionship and patience,” Mady said.
“Teamwork makes the dream work,” Laprade chimed in.
It also helped that the boys finally found dry kindling “right under a fortress of leaves,” Laprade said.
For Jadeynn Eveland, an incoming eighth grader, building a fire ended up being “hard and annoying.” She attempted to build a campfire another time before this, and both times she’s been stymied by the rain beforehand making the materials too damp.
Eveland was still working to get a fire going into the later part of the morning, but said she was determined to make the flames rise.
Middle School students were successful in building campfires during 21st Century grant program activities involving outdoor skills.
“Our fire’s gonna work somehow,” Eveland said, standing next to Reid Middle School teacher Courtney Norrgard, who was assisting her. “It might take all day.”
Pittsfield firefighters were also on hand on Tuesday to keep an eye on the fires.
Whitacre said that this summer’s program reflected the district’s commitment to increasing literacy and comprehension among students. The program’s participants were expected to read along with “Hatchet” to understand the real-life knowledge contained within books.
While the activities are fun, she emphasized that the program was a summer learning experience, and not a camp.
“What I want students to understand is that when you learn something here, it connects over here,” Whitacre said. “Oftentimes, they learn something in the classroom and they only apply it there. They’re not using their critical thinking skills; they’re not transferring their learning to any other environment.”
Incoming eighth graders Giver Essien and Maria Monroy picked up some survival skills from the program. Monroy said learning about CPR skills, where to find fresh water and how to build different types of fires, had interested her.
The most important things that you need if you get lost in a forest are a signal, shelter and food, Essien said, adding that you need to know “how to be comfortable in your surroundings, and how to be calm in that situation.”
Essien has it all figured out, but admitted that she might need a minute to let it all out before she got to scavenging.
“At first, I would be crying before I would start getting myself together,” Essien said.
The lessons also stuck for Daniel Tyer and River Lamb, both incoming eighth graders who have found the program useful so far. Lamb said they were grateful to know how to perform CPR on somebody — “you never know, you can have a cardiac arrest any time ” — and Tyer said he enjoyed how the summer program’s lessons felt cohesive.
“Normally in the school day, we have classes that are totally different subjects,” Tyer said. “But in this summer program, we have first aid, survival skills, camp crafts and I like how all the classes kind of tie into one thing.”
Both of the rising eighth graders said they enjoyed getting to apply the lessons from “Hatchet.” Lamb was inspired by the story’s messages of perseverance.
Daniel A. Tyer, 13, starts a campfire after learning outdoor skills in 21st Century grant program activities.
“Don’t underestimate a 13-year-old with a hatchet after being stranded on an island with no hope of escaping the Canadian wilderness,” Lamb said.