By Chase Buffington
Cispus Learning Center - Director
Washington Outdoor School Consortium – Chair
E3 Washington – Board Member
It is spring 2022, just over two years since we canceled our season and started the ups and downs roller coaster. At the Cispus Learning Center, our staff stepped outside by our flagpole. It was blue in the sky, and the temperature was warming up. A recognizable sound began to stir, and the yellow buses pulled into the facility. Our sign said “Welcome Back” for those kids; it started a week-long adventure filled with nature, imagination, hands-on earth, and peer-to-peer growth. The students probably thought, “Welcome Back?” We’ve never been. For camp staff, it was a welcome relief to see those buses. It meant we had survived and managed to keep our operation ready for this beautiful day. Read more about Washington’s new Outdoor School for All Bill for 5th and 6th grade students.
Thee children investigate plants in an outdoor school program.
Camp directors, managers, programmers, office staff, kitchen, custodian, maintenance, and countless volunteers are all smiling that the day has arrived. We are also becoming more aware that the last two years were slow, but news has been on the horizon. In House Bill 2078, leadership by Representative Alicia Rule and many others in supporting this legislative bill created a first of its kind support toward “Outdoor School For All”. The governor has put pen to paper, and the outdoor school program grants will be widely available to all 5th and 6th graders across the state to have an overnight residential experience in the outdoors.
The Outdoor School For All bill ensures that every 5th or 6th grade student in Washington has an opportunity to attend an outdoor school.
Maybe it was all the zoom videos or flipchart, the onslaught of news, all of us drowned in technology to solve problems, but a new dawn is arriving. At least I want to believe it has this so-called “Outdoor Revival.” What is this get-back outside idea? It’s simple, let young people enjoy each other by being in person at a residential overnight camp. Let them leave home for the first time and find out what independence means. Transformative experiential education; we all need it. We all should encourage it to protect it, which is to get outside in the moment so we may have memories that say, “Looking back that one week with my friends outside was one of my favorite experiences”. Not just for the few, but everyone regardless of their economic background, disabilities, geographic location, or any other hurdle in human life. Check it out at Outdoor Schools Washington and celebrate that this is essential today, tomorrow, and forever.
Reminder: The fight isn’t over; the legislation has approved a spending budget and created a bill. The funding is not substantial enough to serve everyone, but it puts us to work. It allows us to prove by the numbers that we are on our way. The biennium legislative session is the big one in 2023, and we can use your support in helping our advocacy reach the finish line.
Please visit https://waoutdoorschoolforall.com/